Faulkner's Gambit: Chess and Literature

In an interdisciplinary approach that combines interpretive theory with the sociology and psychology of games, Faulkner's Gambit examines the chess structures, motifs, and imagery in William Faulkner's only novella, situating this critically neglected work within both a historical and literary context. This study traces the rise to prominence of chess in America from its promotion as a self-actualizing and socially beneficial tool by Benjamin Franklin to its prebellum height with the legendary exploits of the nineteenth-century Louisianan maestro Paul Morphy.

Michael Wainwright completed his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London and has taught courses on twentieth-century American Literature at the University of London, Staffordshire University, and the University of Birmingham. A two-time winner of the Faulkner Conference 'Call for Papers,' his publications include Darwin and Faulkner's Novels: Evolution and Southern Fiction; chapters in Faulkner and the Ecology of the South and Faulkner's Sexualities; and articles in the Mississippi Quarterly, Criticism, and Papers on Language and Literature.