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A Kierkegaardian Reading Of Three Novels By Faulkner, Francine Marilyn Hall

Master's Theses

William Faulkner and S¢ren Kierkegaard, although separated in time by almost a century, possess a common concern: both are deeply interested in the numerous ways in which individuals live out their lives in either hope or despair. Exploring the avenues which might alleviate this despair and providing a basis for hope are tasks both authors have accepted as theirs.

This paper relates three novels by Faulkner to the stages of existence set forth by Kierkegaard in much of his philosophical writing. I intend to show that Faulk­ ner's characters serve as illustrations of different ways in which an individual may …

Benjamin Compson : Consciousness, Rhetoric, And The 'Fictive Art', Ann Brooke Lewis

Master's Theses

A study of consciousness in the first section of The Sound and the Fury clarifies both the novel's technique and its rendering of human truth. My reading of this monologue is based on the premise that the way Benjamin Compson views the world and the way in which his mind arranges those views enhances our understanding of the novel's other brother-narrators, Quentin and Jason. As limited and distorted as Benjy's perceptions may be, they provide a model by which the perceptions of Quentin and Jason gain clarity and meaning. Benjy's monologue begins the novel and provides the reader's entrance into …

The Individual And The Problem Of Self-Definition In Faulkner : Isolation And Gesture In Light In August, The Sound And The Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, And As I Lay Dying, Betty Jean Seymour

Master's Theses

Perhaps the primary task of the writer is the communication of that which is most significant in human experience. This paper has grown out of an interest in contemporary literature as an expression of this function. Literature, like other art forms, can appraise, analyze, reflect, and, sometimes, provide direction for, the plight of modern man.