From 1929 to the latest issue, American Literature has been the foremost journal expressing the findings of those who study our national literature. The journal has published the best work of literary historians, critics, and bibliographers, ranging from the founders of the discipline to the best current critics and researchers. The longevity of this excellence lends a special distinction to the articles in American Literature.
Presented in order of their first appearance, the articles in each volume constitute a revealing record of developing insights and important shifts of critical emphasis. Each article has opened a fresh line of inquiry, established a fresh perspective on a familiar topic, or settled a question that engaged the interest of experts.
Series Introduction vii
Faulkner's Wilderness (1959) / Otis B. Wheeler 1
Colonel Thomas Sutpen as Existentialist Hero (1962) / William J. Sowder 11
Procrustean Revision in Go Down, Moses (1965) / Marvin Klotz 26
Absalom, Absalom!: The Discovery of Values (1965) / Donald M. Kartiganer 42
"Pantaloon": The Negro Anomaly as the Heart of Go Down, Moses (1972) / Walter Taylor 58
The Time of Myth and History in Absalom, Absalom! (1973) / Patricia Tobin 73
The Value and Limitations of Faulkner's Fictional Method (1975) / Brent Harold 92
Faulkner, Childhood, and the Making of The Sound and the Fury (1979) / David Minter 110
The Sound and the Fury: A Logic of Tragedy (1981) / Warwick Wadlington 128
Narrative Styles (1981) / J. E. Bunselmeyer 143
"The Whole Burden of Man's History of His Impossible Heart's Desire": The Early Life of Faulkner (1982) / Jay Martin 162
Embedded Story Structures in Absalom, Absalom! (1983) / Philip J. Egan 185
Centers, Openings, and Endings: Some Constants (1984) / Martin Kreiswirth 201
The Mirror, the Lamp, and the Bed: Faulkner and the Modernists (1985) / Virginia V. Hlavsa 214
The Illusion of Freedom in The Hamlet and Go Down, Moses (1985) / Margaret M. Dunn 235
Predestination and Freedom in As I Lay Dying (1989) / Charles Palliser 252
The Symbolist Connection (1987) / Alexander Marshall, III 269
Index 283
