Oprah’s Book Club, in conjunction with Phillip Morris, Walt Disney, and Satan

PRESENT…

As I lay Dyingby William Faulkner

Reasons the Book Club Reasons the Book Club hated ithated itSTREAM OF STREAM OF

CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS

SOUTHERN SOUTHERN GOTHICGOTHIC

NO NO INSPIRATIONAL INSPIRATIONAL

MESSAGE MESSAGE TO TO COMFORT YOUR SOULCOMFORT YOUR SOUL

William Faulkner American Writer

1897-1962

• renowned Mississippi writer

• Nobel Prize-winning novelist and short story writer

• acclaimed throughout the world as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers

Our First Novel!

• You will finish to page 20 tonight.

• Why so little reading?

• Because you need to read carefully because it is written in…

STYLE-Stream of STYLE-Stream of ConsciousnessConsciousness• Technique that records the Technique that records the

multifarious thoughts and feelings of multifarious thoughts and feelings of a character without regard to logical a character without regard to logical argument or narrative sequence. argument or narrative sequence.

• The writer attempts by the stream of The writer attempts by the stream of consciousness to reflect all the consciousness to reflect all the forces, external and internal, forces, external and internal, influencing the psychology of a influencing the psychology of a character at a single moment.character at a single moment.

• used by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William used by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner. Faulkner.

Bundren Family:Bundren Family: Pa, AnsePa, Anse Addie, MaAddie, Ma Darl, (Boy)Darl, (Boy) Cash, (Boy)Cash, (Boy) Jewel, (Boy)Jewel, (Boy) Dewey Dell, (GIRL)Dewey Dell, (GIRL) Vardaman, (Boy)Vardaman, (Boy)

Tull FamilyTull Family Cora Tull (wife )Cora Tull (wife ) Vernon Tull, Tull Vernon Tull, Tull

(Hubby)(Hubby)

Eula (Daughter)Eula (Daughter) Kate (Daughter)Kate (Daughter)

As I Lay Dying• Faulkner’s first novel published after The Sound

and the Fury, As I Lay Dying • acclaimed as one of Faulkner’s greatest novels as

well as a self-proclaimed “tour de force” by Faulkner himself.

• told in stream-of-conscious fashion by fifteen different speakers in some 59 chapters.

• depiction of the Bundren family’s quest to Jefferson to bury their dead matriarch, Addie, among her “people,” against the threats of flood and fire

SETTING—The South

• Yoknapatawpha County : Pronounced "Yok ´ nuh puh TAW ´ fuh."

• A county in northern Mississippi, the setting for most of William Faulkner's novels and short stories, and patterned upon Faulkner's actual home in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

• In Go Down, Moses: The Miscegenation of Time, he suggests Faulkner might have consulted a 1915 Dictionary of the Choctaw Language in which the word is broken down as follows:

• ik patafo, a., unplowed.patafa, pp., split open; plowed, furrowed; tilled.yakni, n., the earth; ...soil; ground; nation; ...district....yakni patafa, pp., furrowed land; fallowed land.

GENRE-- Southern Gothic

• subgenre of the Gothic writing style, unique to American Literature.

• Like its parent genre, it relies on supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot.

SouthernSouthern Gothic Gothic

UnlikeUnlike its predecessor, its predecessor, it uses these tools not it uses these tools not for the sake of for the sake of suspense, but to suspense, but to explore social issues explore social issues and reveal the cultural and reveal the cultural character of the character of the American SouthAmerican South

Set up your notebook thusly:

1. Characters– the one speaking and those involved in action

2. Images/words/italics/blanks– these will repeat or “echo” across chapters

3. Note a passage – page and paragraph number

4. Comment on the passage

Commonly used dialectCommonly used dialect

Ere = e’er = EverEre = e’er = Ever ( sometimes) Ere = Before ( sometimes) Ere = Before

By the way, this is an adze:By the way, this is an adze:

What literary technique What literary technique is the is the

““Chuck.Chuck.

Chuck.Chuck.

Chuck.”?Chuck.”?

Reading Comprehension– cracking Reading Comprehension– cracking the code of this book.the code of this book.

What is the last thing Darl is doing in his What is the last thing Darl is doing in his chapter?chapter?

Where is Darl on page 9?Where is Darl on page 9? Page 8: “The quilt is drawn up to her Page 8: “The quilt is drawn up to her

chin…”chin…”

WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? Where is Cora?Where is Cora?

Correct! Well done young scholar!Correct! Well done young scholar!

Darl is at the top of the hill about to enter the Darl is at the top of the hill about to enter the house…house…

On Page 9, Darl has entered the houseOn Page 9, Darl has entered the house ““Quilt drawn up to her chin…” Cora thinking Quilt drawn up to her chin…” Cora thinking

about the cakes while she is sitting in the about the cakes while she is sitting in the house with Addie Bundren who is in bed house with Addie Bundren who is in bed dying.dying.

Darl has come up the hill and entered the Darl has come up the hill and entered the house. Therefore…house. Therefore…

Each of these chapters is taking place at Each of these chapters is taking place at (almost) the same time but from different (almost) the same time but from different points of view.points of view.

Where is Cash? Jewel?Where is Cash? Jewel?

SubjectivitySubjectivity

Each character has his own limited view Each character has his own limited view of the world (limited by location and by of the world (limited by location and by their own thoughts which influence how their own thoughts which influence how they percieve the world…)they percieve the world…)

There is no Objective narrative voice to There is no Objective narrative voice to comment on the characters or tell who is comment on the characters or tell who is right or wrong or sympatheticright or wrong or sympathetic

Just like _________.Just like _________.

Faulkner Journal #1

WRITE in stream of consciousness—just don’t use your own

consciousness.

Topic: The school year so far. Or

your own topic.

Perhaps write as one of these people:

ASSIGNMENTS

READ to page 25 (Cora) TONIGHT