Faulkner: On Technique and Style

... from "Light in August: A Study in Black and White" by Alwyn Berland

Faulkner was the the most ambitious writer of fiction in the twentieth century. He was a deliberate and devoted craftsman of structure and style in the great tradition of Henry James and William Conrad, both of whom he admired and by whose high standards he wished to be judged.

Distinguishing elements of Faulkner's Fiction:

1) Virtuosity in the innovative experimental use narrative and structure techniques
2) Stylistic mastery of a wide range of voices
3) Fecundity of immagination ( a Faulkner word )
4) Largeness of vision
5) Creation of a moral framework that both portray and evaluate human actions with a keen judgment that is tempered with compassion and humor
6) Creation of a fictional world in which social realisms are enhanced and sometimes transformed by a legend-creating and myth-making immagination.

Submitted 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One