I am still very moved by this story. It is really a novel worth reading.
The following is the relevant information of william faulkner:
William faulkner (William Faulkner L897-1962), an American writer, was born in a noble family, and his full name was william cuthbert faulkner. The imagination of this family is dominated by William Cracow Faulkner, Faulkner's great grandfather, who is an old colonel. He is not only a planter, but also a soldier, writer and politician. He is also an entrepreneur who runs railways, and the railway he built is the only one in the local area. Oxford left a clear mark of the old colonel. After the death of the old colonel, an 8-foot-high Italian marble statue stood on the grave. Telling the legend of the old colonel has become a ceremony for everyone. His great-grandfather William Clark Faulkner was a famous historical figure in northern Mississippi. He was a colonel in the Confederate army and built a railway. A town in the state is also named after him. He also wrote several novels and other works, and this literary tradition has been handed down at home. Colonel John Sartor Rees in Faulkner's works was created on the basis of his great-grandfather.
However, william faulkner's father is usually regarded as a black sheep. His job has changed one after another, but he always can't find a place to settle down. But Faulkner is proud of his mother. She has a strong will and a strong self-esteem. A father who has repeatedly failed is out of place with a mother who has high self-esteem. When he was a child, her mother often forced him to choose between "weakness" and "strength", which made him experience deep division and pain from an early age. William faulkner is shorter than his peers, and he hopes to grow taller throughout his childhood. Great-grandfather's glory is in great contrast with his father's loneliness. The split of family and physical disadvantage promote his imagination to develop from liking to dependence. Faulkner gradually moved away from group activities and even played truant. William faulkner regarded himself as a great-grandfather's child and imitated the life of the old colonel from an early age. He gave up using his father's name, Cuthbert, and took the family tycoon's name, William, as his real name. At the age of 9, he began to say "I want to be a writer like my great-grandfather"-this sentence was repeated and became a mantra.
Faulkner's plot is full of complex psychological changes of the characters, and delicate emotional descriptions are interspersed among them. The biggest external features of his works are long and complicated sentences and exquisite vocabulary selected after repeated deliberation. His prolific life is envied by many American writers, but many people are critical of him. He and Hemingway, whose style is simple and clear, are even more extreme. It is generally believed that he was the only truly American modernist writer in the 1930 s, echoing European literary experimenters Joyce, Woolf, Proust and others, and used a lot of innovative literary techniques such as stream of consciousness, multi-angle narration and the passage of time in his statements. Faulkner was deeply influenced by family traditions and southern customs. His works have the unique sense of humor of southerners, profoundly depicting sensitive issues such as the status, coexistence and contradiction between blacks and whites, and vividly depicting the image of southerners. Early in his writing career, an editor misspelled his name as "Faulkner", and Faulkner himself decided to use it wrongly.
Faulkner is also an excellent writer of mystery novels. He published a series of crime novels "Knight's Gambit" featuring Gavin Stevens, a lawyer who also appeared in some other novels of Faulkner and knew the world of Patafa County, York like the back of his hand. Many of Faulkner's novels are set in this fictional Yoknapatafa County, and the prototype is lafayette County, where his hometown is located. Yoknapatafa is a symbol of Faulkner's works and one of the famous fictional places in the history of literature. His former residence in Oxford (Mississippi) has also become a museum, managed by the University of Mississippi.
Later, he moved to Hollywood and began his screenwriter career, adapting the scripts of Sleeping directed by Howard Hawkes (1946) and Hemingway's With and Without. Faulkner also had an affair with Hawkes' secretary, Meta Carpenter.
He is also a famous alcoholic, who has been soaked in alcohol all his life. It is said that he will drink more after the happy event and it will last for a long time. And he often drinks in bed, and his family brings wine to accompany him. There is an anecdote that says: 1949 after learning that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he planned to get drunk before going to Stockholm. On the day of the notice, his nephew also came to visit with wine to celebrate his victory in a football match. Although he was drunk at that time, Faulkner compared the time of these two events together, and suddenly realized that his family was cheating him. For fear that he would get drunk when he received the prize, he changed the date of going to Sweden. Knowing the truth, he still drank it until he really set out.
His acceptance speech in Stockholm is one of the most wonderful speeches in Nobel Prize in Literature. He said: "I refuse to think that human beings have come to an end ... human beings can endure hardships and will eventually win." This speech fits his character very well. He donated his prize money to "set up a fund to support and encourage new literary talents", and finally set up the International PEN/Faulkner Novel Award.
Faulkner's novels reveal everything he tried to hide all his life: he linked the beginning of division and pain with the behavior of alienated parents. In Absalom, Absalom, Miss Rosack Defarge is in a dilemma between her mother's death and her father's survival, and finds that her childhood has disappeared before she can appreciate it, including Faulkner's painful shadow. Faulkner and estelle were childhood friends, and the relationship of "little lovers" lasted for many years. But because he is the worthless son of a worthless father, he seems to be a hopeless suitor. Both parents disapprove of their marriage, thinking that he has no fixed job and no future and is not qualified to talk about marriage. Seeing estelle engaged to someone, "his world was broken." With the collapse of the personal world, the external world is also on the verge of collapse. With the outbreak of World War I, the peace, prosperity and progress that ruled the West for nearly a century came to an end. Maybe I can make a difference in the collapse of the world? He dreams of being honored by his great grandfather, and he is determined to become a pilot. He found the station, but was turned back. People think he is short and weak. He was abandoned by his lover, relatives and hometown conscription station one after another and could not stay in Oxford. He embarked on a journey to the British conscription station in New Haven. There, he forged his identity and documents, was accepted as an Englishman william faulkner, and was trained as a pilot of the Royal Air Force. He practiced aerobics, marched in haste, and studied aviation and flight principles. I'm about to fly to the battlefield. Unexpectedly, the war ended in19181kloc-0/0/0/0/month1.
He returned to Oxford in early February, 65438+ without injury, reward or praise. Lovelorn and heroes are useless, and Faulkner appreciates his ill-fated fate.
Although his mediocre life made him accomplish nothing, he saw a wider world. When Faulkner was sitting alone in his study, he looked out of the window silently. In the disappearing and rising world, he saw both brilliance and ruthlessness: in order to plant profitable things on the ground, he could enslave a nation and destroy a piece of Yuan Ye. He saw vulgarity, meanness, recklessness and exuberance. What he sees is more about himself: a shy and distressed person, approaching step by step with doubts, fears, worries, loss and darkness, unable to do anything about various life problems. If you want to keep your self-esteem for the rest of your life, you must do something, he said to himself. At this time, his heart is full of two contradictory impulses, the impulse to create and the impulse to destroy. He recalled that he was trying and analyzing. This duality has gradually become his usual way and feature in dealing with experiences and past events. Through the strategy of imagination and imitation, he absorbed the theme of spiritual power from his great ancestors. As an adult, he often thinks of stories about his great-grandfather and is often excited. His great-grandfather became a great figure and spiritual mentor in his life. It is impossible to achieve military achievements like my great-grandfather. At this time, for him, the childhood phrase "I want to be a writer like my great-grandfather" resounded in my ears. Living in the world, only by writing and writing fictional novels can we control this mixed world, get rid of confusion, get out of a dead end and move towards a peaceful world. For him, only another world is enough to be treated by this world. He decided to devote all his talents to art.
He is addicted to the past and loyal to his imagination. He is afraid of the relentless passage of time and the girl becoming a woman. Faulkner rendered his living environment into a romantic end of the century. Faulkner created Quentin, a ghost who always looks back when he is angry and confused, and Radcliffe who accepts "cultural changes" without anger, sadness or even nostalgia. Faulkner found that life has the duality of sadness and joy: knowing that people are washed away by the torrent of time, they can't retaliate against time; Although people are washed away by the torrent of time, they can fully enjoy the comedy of time. Faulkner is deeply divided and afraid of falling apart and dying, which makes him increasingly dependent on art. He always has a fear that one day not only the ecstasy of creation will disappear, but also the desire to create and the content worth writing will disappear. This fear only came to an abrupt end when his eyes were guided to his hometown by the old writer Anderson. "I found this stamp" Great Land "worth writing, and I can't finish it in my life." People, families and society began to multiply in imagination, scenes and plots began to derive, imagination flew wildly from one possibility to another, and new discoveries emerged constantly, just like digging gold mines.
Faulkner continued to write and publish works, but he never made enough money. Faulkner once wrote The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom! "and other novels. , and didn't get the fame and money to match it. Faulkner longed for success, but poverty and obscurity had already honed him. He wants to survive by writing what he has to write over and over again. Faulkner has seen his destiny clearly. He found that his destiny would be to continue writing books. This fate means that he wants to create-to serve a dream and a fire in his heart: so I created my own universe. "Many critics think Faulkner is a writer with backward theme but forward style and form. This statement seems dialectical and profound, but it does not conform to the essence of the facts. Faulkner's novels take place in the "south", but strictly speaking, the south is just his writing method, because he happens to be a southerner and he is familiar with the south, so he needs the south to serve him. But he doesn't have to abide by the historical facts of the south, but he mixes, adds, deletes and modifies it through imagination, giving it a completely different look from any factual state, thus creating a unique artistic world. This world corresponds to Faulkner's inner needs and inner truth. He created the world in the novel, and he is willing to let the world in the novel create itself. Writing is the need of life and an indispensable part of Faulkner's life. Being able to write for himself is his lifelong pursuit. " One day, I seemed to close the floodgate between myself and the addresses of all publishers and the catalogue of new books, and said to myself, now I can write. "Writing for yourself means the freedom to dig more private materials, go back to the past and go deep into the heart. Faulkner created a character, Charlotte Lidenmeyer, according to his lovers Meta and Helen in Wild Palm. Faulkner used the brush in his heart to edit his sweetheart's life experience, excluding her birthday, marriage and work experience, and painted her as a timid and lovely girl. Many characters in Faulkner's novels are actually the transformation of characters in his real life. The history in his novels includes past, present and future. The places in his novels are the south and the north, the United States and anywhere else.
1950, Faulkner finally became famous, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Success comes, fame is good, but he feels empty. At this time, he felt that what he really needed was creation itself. Over the years, he has established a unique way of life, that is, he has been obsessed with his fictional world and can't let go. Once he loses his grasp of the connection between the road to the fictional world and the fictional world, his confidence in life will be shaken. Getting ahead is better than being left out in the cold, but it doesn't give him lasting satisfaction. There is always a voice singing to him in writing. Just like when writing the first novel "Flag in the Grave", the voice of writing Gibbon shouted out his favorite image of Katie. All kinds of unique sounds come together to turn an empty studio into a lively kingdom and melt away the loneliness and pain in life. Nothing can alleviate Faulkner's desire for writing, money, love and fame.
He needs to constantly expand his kingdom and connect different parts. After writing a book, the temporary comfort, happiness and sense of accomplishment are quickly overwhelmed by emptiness. His creation is to prove his existence, and it is also a way to refuse to destroy. Go Moses is his last important novel. He further explored his familiar themes, such as "honor, truth, sympathy, thoughtfulness and the ability to endure sadness and misfortune", and portrayed people who worked hard to pursue these.
Faulkner wrote 19 novels and nearly 100 short stories, of which 15 novels and most short stories took place in Patafa County, York, which is called the lineage of Patafa. Its main line is from 1800 to the story of several families and generations in Jefferson Town and its suburbs belonging to different social classes after World War II. More than 600 celebrities with surnames in their lineages appear alternately in various novels and short stories. One of the most representative works is Sound and Madness.
Critics generally believe that Faulkner's literary creation is in its heyday from 1929 when The Sound and the Fury was published to 1942 when Go to Moses was published. The Sound and the Fury is similar to Sha dorris, and both novels reflect the decline of southern families. However, The Sound and the Fury got rid of the traditional realism, and traced back the negative influence of the slave plantation system through the inner conflicts of the characters and the contradictions between people. As I Lay Dying is another masterpiece of Faulkner, which describes the death of peasant woman Eddie Bendron within 10 days. Light in August is about a lonely man who can't find his place in society. He is dominated by unreasonable social laws and fate, and finally dies tragically. Absalom! Absalom! Through the narration of several people, it shows the rise and fall history of the manor owner Thomas Cedpan. This work is the most epic in Faulkner's creation. It is full of ups and downs, colorful and tragic, from which we can see the influence of the tragedies of ancient Greece and Shakespeare.
Go Moses is a series of novels, which consists of seven works. The hero Isaac McCaslin is the last descendant of a manor family. On the one hand, the novel is two branches of McCaslin's patriarch, old carothers (white, including his daughter's descendants; And descendants of mulatto). On the other hand, there are several stories about hunting. The longest one, the bear, stands out. This is the most beautiful work about hunting and big forests in the history of American literature, full of myths and symbols.
Faulkner's other important works include Temple, Pagoda, Invincible Man, Wild Palm, Intruder of Grave, Requiem for Nuns, Fable, Predator and so on. Snoopy trilogy (village, town and government) is also very important. Flem Snoops is a shrewd and cunning figure. He changed from a poor man to a local banker, and he is the representative of the emerging bourgeoisie in the South.
Faulkner was a resident writer of the University of Virginia from 1957 to 1962.
After Faulkner's death, the United States and other countries in the world paid more and more attention to him, and the study of him itself has become a science. His works have been constantly translated and introduced in various countries, and the works of writers in some regions (especially Latin America) are obviously influenced by him. Faulkner has become a modern classic writer and is regarded as a writer with strong modern consciousness and profound social and historical reflection. He wrote about the communication and alienation between people in modern society and how people pursue and maintain their "humanity"; It reveals the distortion and alienation of human nature in western society. Critics also believe that Faulkner is an expert in excavating and expressing people's inner world. In many cases, he portrays characters by expressing their inner activities and shows the spirit of the times. According to his deeper understanding of modern philosophy and psychology, he also formed a unique vision of cognitive life. According to this unique vision, he created and adopted a series of new novel techniques to help him fully show the complexity of modern people and modern life. Faulkner is also a master in the use and creation of literary language. His language is rich and colorful, which can provide artistic treasures of various styles.
In 1930s, China introduced and commented on Faulkner sporadically, and the real translation and research began in 1980s. Since then, some of Faulkner's representative works have been published in Chinese, and at the same time, Faulkner's research has made great progress.