Evening Discussion on William Faulkner:
Swan’s Fine Books
1381 Locust Street, Walnut Creek
Thursday, January 16th, 2014
7:30pm – 8:30pm | Free
Please join us on Thursday evening, January 16th, for a discussion on William Faulkner. Our guest speaker this evening will be Meredith Kelling, who recently presented at the Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford, Mississippi.
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” It’s not only for their uncharacteristic brevity that those lines are some of the most quoted of Faulkner’s fiction, for the past in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County is inescapable, and time itself is a sort of floodplain wherein the present, past, and future all seep into one another. Faulkner is too often pigeon-holed as a “Southern writer,” one whose narratives are set during and after the decline of the South, but his writing unsettles such abstract terms, focusing less on heroes and villains and more on characters who grapple with their uncertain ideas of good and evil, their ability to reconcile with their pasts and origins.
That Faulkner set his novels in The South – a place and time highly particularized in the American mind – allows for rich narrative possibility, but should it also allow the present day reader the comfort of psychological distance from Faulkner’s characters and their struggles? Or can Faulkner’s works still resonate with us today? Please join us for what we hope will be a lively discussion on Faulkner; his works, his legacy with the American reader, and Faulkner in the classroom.
Seating will be limited to 30 guests, so please R.S.V.P. to hold a space. There is no charge to attend and light refreshments will be served.
