William Faulkner

Even though Yoknapatawpha County and the novels which brought it into existence are ultimately William Faulkner's imaginative creations, they have a very strong relationship to the American South, and Faulkner's home region in northern Mississippi in particular. This part of the United States underwent a transforming process of social change during Faulkner's life, and Faulkner monitored closely the disruptive consequences of the transformation of his region from a rural place, dominated by an agricultural economy to a "new" South, with a more diversified economy. He also observed the repercussions of this transformation in the form of social conflicts and contradictions. This study reads the Yoknapatawpha novels as Faulkner's literary response to the disruptive processes of social change and their consequences. It examines the influence of Faulkner's creative engagement with social change, especially the way the narrative and thematic structures of his Yoknapatawpha novels are shaped by the force of change in the areas of economy, gender, and race.