Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
In 1989, the Caribbean writer Edouard Glissant visited Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's home in Oxford, Mississippi. His visit spurred him to write a revelatory book about the work of one of our greatest but still least-understood American writers.
"A fascinating way to read Faulkner. . . .[Glissant's] case is nothing less than that, no matter how Faulkner's personal Furies twisted his public speech, Faulkner was a great, world-beating multiculturalist."—Jonathan Levi, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A sharp, challenging, and wholly unique tour of Yoknapatawpha County." —Kirkus Reviews
"Passionate. . . . Glissant's prose sometimes vies with Faulkner's for intricacy and evocative nuance." —Scott McLemee, Newsday
"Glissant tries to engage Faulkner on many fronts simultaneously, positioning himself as a critic, a fellow artist and as a descendant of slaves. . . He makes a convincing case that Faulkner is not just another 'dead white male author.'"—Scott Yarbrough, Raleigh News & Observer
"[An] ambitious and, at times, rambunctious expedition into Yoknapatawpha County." —Christine Schwartz Hartley, New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
El novelista y poeta francófono Édouard Glissant, una de las voces literarias más poderosas del mundo antillano, configura en Faulkner, Mississippi una aproximación al mundo y la obra del autor de El sonido y la furia. Para Glissant, William Faulkner reconstruyó -y le encontró una razón literaria de ser- a ese orgulloso Sur que sufrió el martirio de una derrota humillante. Según el ensayista, el famoso novelista estadunidense indagaba las causas que llevaron al mundo sureño a una lenta e inexorable condena.
Library Journal
In this brief, densely written, but unfortunately somewhat turgid volume, Glissant surveys the entirety of Faulkner's fiction to explore not only the relatively familiar themes of violence, the fall of the Old South (Compsons) and rise of the New (Snopeses), territorial conquest and ownership, community, and ancestry but also the manifestations of the Nobel prize winner's seldom-noted equivocations over racism in the South. Glissant does not organize his discussion around the various works but rather around the main themes he finds in Faulkner's fiction. A well-known black writer from Martinique for whom English is a second language, he demonstrates both an astonishing familiarity with the most minute particulars of the whole range of Faulkner's work on the American South and a remarkable ear for the different styles Faulkner used--differences that may be more noticeable to a nonnative speaker. Touted by its publisher as a "highly original new book," Faulkner, Mississippi is just that. Highly recommended for academic libraries with extensive Faulkner collections.--Charles Crawford Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Library Journal
In this brief, densely written, but unfortunately somewhat turgid volume, Glissant surveys the entirety of Faulkner's fiction to explore not only the relatively familiar themes of violence, the fall of the Old South (Compsons) and rise of the New (Snopeses), territorial conquest and ownership, community, and ancestry but also the manifestations of the Nobel prize winner's seldom-noted equivocations over racism in the South. Glissant does not organize his discussion around the various works but rather around the main themes he finds in Faulkner's fiction. A well-known black writer from Martinique for whom English is a second language, he demonstrates both an astonishing familiarity with the most minute particulars of the whole range of Faulkner's work on the American South and a remarkable ear for the different styles Faulkner used--differences that may be more noticeable to a nonnative speaker. Touted by its publisher as a "highly original new book," Faulkner, Mississippi is just that. Highly recommended for academic libraries with extensive Faulkner collections.--Charles Crawford Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.NY Times Book Review
...Observations that are slowly accumulated, insights gradually or suddenly revealed and questions raised...an academic project...[is transformed] into a piece of writing that is often poetic.Jonathan Levi
A fascinating way to read Faulkner.... [Glissant's] case is nothing less than that, no matter how Faulkner's personal Furies twisted his public speech, Faulkner was a great, world-beating multiculturalist.— Los Angeles Times Book Review