As%20I%20Lay%20Dying%20William%20Faulkner

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As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner

• An Introduction

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Faulkners Unusual Format

• As a leader of the Modernist Movement, Faulkners
  primary accomplishment is his use of experimental
  narration.
• As I Lay Dying is told by 15 separate narrators,
  each telling his or her own version of the
  events, sometimes supporting and sometimes
  contradicting each other.

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Faulkners Unusual Format

• Hallmarks of Faulkners Technique
• Shifting narration from one character to another
• Stream-of-consciousness narration
• Disruptions in standard chronology
• Allowing the reader to put the story into some
  kind of coherent order
• The variety and range of personalities make his
  little postage stamp of native soil
  representative of the entire human race.

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Faulkner and Monet

• In the 1920s, Faulkner was an expatriate living
  in France. He visited museums and wrote home
  about the paintings he saw.
• How did Impressionist painters such as Claude
  Monet influence the work of William Faulkner?

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View of the Roeun Cathedrals portal nowadays
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in morning light,
Monet
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in morning light,
Monet
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, harmony in blue
and gold, Monet
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, harmony in blue
and gold, Monet
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral and the tower
dAlbane, Monet
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral at afternoon
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, the Portal on a
grey day
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The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, le Portal vu de
face, harmony in brown, Monet
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As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

• Type of Work
• Novel
• Genre
• Satire of heroic narrative rural novel comedy
  tragedy
• Tone
• Varies from narrator to narrator to narrator
  tragic, comic, calm, hysterical, emotional,
  detached
• Setting
• 1920s, in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County,
  Mississippi

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As I Lay Dyingby William Faulkner

• Major Conflict
• The members of the Bundren family trek across the
  Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife
  and mother.
• Source of the Title
• Agamemnons speech to Odysseus in the Odyssey,
  Book XI
• As I lay dying the woman with the dogs eyes
  would not close my eyes for me as I descended
  into Hades.
• Faulkner wanted the phrase, not the context.

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Tips for Reading Faulkner

• Be patient.
• Be willing to re-read.
• Focus on the characters.
• Look for timeless tales.
• Make the story your own.

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Things to Look For

• Characters often express conflicting opinions and
  contradicting sides to the same story.
• Look for changes in typeface. When the text goes
  from normal to italic it indicates a shift in
  perspective or a characters inner thoughts.

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How to Read Faulkner

• If you get lost
• Check to see whose name is at the beginning of
  the chapter.
• Go back to the last place you remember the story
  make sense and reread.
• Ask yourself, Where is Addie?