William Faulkner - (1897 - 1962)
(Born William Cuthbert Falkner; changed surname to Faulkner) American novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and essayist.
A preeminent figure in twentieth-century American literature, Faulkner created a profound and complex body of work that examines exploitation and corruption in the American South. Many of Faulkner's novels and short stories are set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional area reflecting the geographical and cultural background of his native Mississippi. Faulkner's works frequently reflect the tumultuous history of the South while developing perceptive explorations of human character. His use of bizarre, grotesque, and violent imagery, melodrama, and sensationalism to depict the corruption and decay of the region make him one of the earliest practitioners of the subgenre known as Southern Gothic literature. Faulkner's works that are especially well known for their Gothic qualities include the novels Sanctuary (1931), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936); the novella As I Lay Dying (1930); and the short story "A Rose for Emily" (1930). They combine burlesque and dark humor with realism and elements of the horrific and macabre to caricature a society that is unable to break from its past and look to the future. Faulkner employs gothicism, then, as a searing social critique, using it to paint a picture of a culture in ruins, populated by grotesques and living ghosts who refuse to recognize their alienation and defeat.
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