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Tragic reaction: Nietzsche and questions of Faulkner's style
Abstract
An important line of adverse criticism maintains that Faulknerian form reflects only confusion of the mind, thus reducing the felt tragic intensity in Faulkner's fiction to mere emotionalism. Using Nietzsche's philosophy as a model and examining closely four of Faulkner's most discussed novels, this dissertation proposes that the question raised about Faulknerian form has resonances beyond the evaluation of Faulkner's achievements. The clarity of Faulknerian form must be understood in connection with a mode of thought steeped in tragic pathos. At the core of tragic thought is supreme strength: in the modern era, tragic thought invariably begins with the nihilist belief that there is no moral world order; yet it overcomes the value of nil by affirming the plurality of life as the primal fund of creativity. As such, the tragic is the triumph of Art over the rational concept of knowledge, a true reaction to modernity. The tragic defined as an aesthetics of multiple affirmation is the informing idea of this study. In Part I, several implications of the aesthetics relevant to an evaluation of Faulknerian form are discussed: the principle of life, perspectivism, the plural I, tragic pathos. The term tragic reaction is used alternately to suggest that the basic Faulknerian form is an environment of reactions in which the tragic functions as a differential element. Part II is concerned with Faulkner's uses of voice. It is argued, in Chapter 4, that a single voice in Faulkner's fiction manifests the plurality of the ego fatum. In Chapter 5, polyphonic music is used as an analogy to illustrate how Dionysian depth of vision is created in Faulkner's fiction. Each of the four chapters in Part III examines a novel in the light of the defined aesthetics. In Chapter 6, the interaction of nihilisms as embodied by the troubled kinships is identified as the main theme and form in The Sound and the Fury. Chapter 7, concerning Absalom, Absalom!, begins with a premise which undermines any single, superior view of history, namely: history is made and reshaped by various creative uses of remembrance propelled by needs and desires. In Chapter 8, Ike's consciousness in Go Down, Moses is cited as an example of the plural soul. Chapter 9 discusses the joy of the circle as a structuring principle in Light in August in terms of Nietzsche's Eternal Return.
Subject Area
Modern literature|American literature|Philosophy|Literature
Recommended Citation
Liu, Jun, "Tragic reaction: Nietzsche and questions of Faulkner's style" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9233091.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9233091