As I Lay Dying: Difference between revisions
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The novel is known for its [[stream of consciousness writing]] technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths; the shortest chapter in the book consists of just five words. Faulkner wrote the novel in six weeks without changes on a table fashioned from a wheelbarrow while working the 6PM-6AM shift at a coal-fired power plant.<ref>Faulkner, William ''Sanctuary'' New York: Vintage International, 1993 ISBN 0-679-74814-8</ref> |
The novel is known for its [[stream of consciousness writing]] technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths; the shortest chapter in the book consists of just five words. Faulkner wrote the novel in six weeks without changes on a table fashioned from a wheelbarrow while working the 6PM-6AM shift at a coal-fired power plant.<ref>Faulkner, William ''Sanctuary'' New York: Vintage International, 1993 ISBN 0-679-74814-8</ref> |
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==Plot summary== |
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The book is told in [[Stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]] style by 15 different narrators in 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest — noble or selfish — to honor her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson. |
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As is the case in much of Faulkner's work, the story is set in [[Yoknapatawpha County]], [[Mississippi]], which Faulkner referred to as "my apocryphal county," a fictional rendering of the writer's home of [[Lafayette County, Mississippi|Lafayette County]] in that same state. |
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==Characters== |
==Characters== |
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Revision as of 19:04, 17 July 2008
| File:Dying87.jpg Cover of As I Lay Dying | |
| Author | William Faulkner |
|---|---|
| Genre | Novel, Modernist literature, Southern Gothic |
Publication date | 1930 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover, paperback and library binding) and audio cassette |
| Pages | 288 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-679-73225-X Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
As I Lay Dying is a novel written by the American author William Faulkner. The novel was published in 1930, and Faulkner described it as a "tour de force." It is Faulkner's fifth novel and is read in schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other English-speaking countries. The title derives from Book XI of Homer's The Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus: "As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades."
The novel is known for its stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths; the shortest chapter in the book consists of just five words. Faulkner wrote the novel in six weeks without changes on a table fashioned from a wheelbarrow while working the 6PM-6AM shift at a coal-fired power plant.[1]
Plot summary
The book is told in stream of consciousness style by 15 different narrators in 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her family's quest — noble or selfish — to honor her wish to be buried in the town of Jefferson.
As is the case in much of Faulkner's work, the story is set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, which Faulkner referred to as "my apocryphal county," a fictional rendering of the writer's home of Lafayette County in that same state.
Characters
- ashhlleeyy
Literary techniques
Throughout the novel, Faulkner presents fifteen different points of view, each chapter narrated by one character, including Addie, who after dying, expresses her thoughts from the coffin. In 59 chapters titled only by their narrators' names, the characters are developed gradually through each other's perceptions and opinions, Darl's predominating.
Like James Joyce before him, Faulkner stands among the pioneers of stream of consciousness. He first used the technique in The Sound and the Fury, and it gives As I Lay Dying its distinctly intimate tone, through the monologues of the tragically flawed Bundrens and the passers-by they encounter. The story helped found the Southern Renaissance and directs a great deal of effort as it progresses to reflections on being and existence, the existential metaphysics of everyday life.
The one chapter narrated by Addie Bundren helped bring issues of feminism and motherhood in literature to the fore, as her voice is clearly expressed only after her death. Except for Jewel and Cash, Addie either dislikes or acts dismissively toward all her children. Jewel and Cash are profoundly affected by her regard for them.
References
- ^ Faulkner, William Sanctuary New York: Vintage International, 1993 ISBN 0-679-74814-8
External links
- As I Lay Dying, via Internet Archive (scanned books, original editions).
- On publishing the novel
- Literapedia Page