william faulkner known for writing about: complexities of sexual, family, social and racial...
TRANSCRIPT
William Faulkner
Known for writing about:• Complexities of sexual,
family, social and racial identities
• The pull and burden of the past
Yoknapatawpha County
• Wrote about Mississippi
• Discovered that his “own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about” and could never be exhausted
• Mythical Yoknapatawpha County is setting for 15 of his novels
The Snopes Trilogy
• The Hamlet (1940) about the Snopeses of “Barn Burning”• Two later books, The Town (1957) and The Mansion (1959) complete the
Snopes trilogy
Katherine Anne Porter
• Born and raised in Texas• Initially a journalist• Lived in Mexico as a
young woman; in Europe later on
• Admired for her technical skill, powerful emotions
Ralph Ellison
• Born in Oklahoma• Attended Tuskegee
Institute• Also a musician
Invisible Man
• “Battle Royal” is actually the opening chapter of Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man
• Novel goes on to follow unnamed protagonist to college and later to New York City and finally underground