Light in August
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Critically regarded today as one of Faulkner's greatest novels, Light in August has been the source of much interpretation since it was written in 1932. Original reviews were mixed, but time has yielded many insights into the novel's richness of style, theme and characterization. An overview of critical interpretations, in light of some reviews from 1932, will demonstrate the favorable effect of time on Light in August. In addition, a more specific critique of Faulkner's style and technique as they apply to Light in August will demonstrate that the many stylistic and technical idiosyncrasies which posed a problem for some early critics were, in fact, part of the ongoing experiment in modern literature as advanced by such giants as T. S. Eliot and James Joyce. Finally, a brief biography will underscore the fact that, by the time of his death in 1962, Faulkner had lived to see his work awarded many honors, including the Nobel Prize in 1949.When reviews of Light in August began to appear, Faulkner was busy writing screenplays. His Hollywood ventures helped to keep his mind off some of the early criticism. As Frederick R. Karl recounts in his comprehensive biography, "the big reviewers were, predictably, disturbed by what they read" (490). Dorothy Van Doren of The Nation called the book undisciplined and attacked Faulkner's understatement (490). Henry Seidel Canby, in The Saturday Review of Literature, judged it as "turgid, obscure, and sloppy, demonstrating an alarming
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on. Maxwell Geismar's Writers in Crisis and Alfred Kazan's On Native Grounds seriously challenged Faulkner's claim to our attention. Minter explains Geismar's and Kazan's critical objections to Faulkner's content and style:
Further, Faulkner's tendency to see "humanity
only in terms of its aberrations" seemed to Geismar to culminate in the displayed "variety of perversions which the writer contrives for his characters" in Light in August.
Kazan attacked not only the stuff but the style and form of Faulkner's work, describing Faulkner's complicated techniques as springing rather "from an obscure and profligate confusion ... than from an elaborate and coherent aim." (Minter 14)
In retrospect, how valid are the assessments of Geismar and Kazan? Consider that after the publication of Light in August, Faulkner was unwinding from his stay in Hollywood. He started work on two short pieces. On a sheet of notebook paper he neatly lettered the title page:
of Jefferson & Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippias compiled byWilliam Faulkner of Rowanoak
Having thus suggested something of a medieval scholar, genealogist, and gentleman, Faulkner went on to write a 700 word biography of Colonel John Sartoris (Blotner 312). It is cle
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Approximate Word count = 2584
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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