AMST 246: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner
Lecture 22 - Faulkner's Light in August. Professor Wai Chee Dimock focuses her introductory lecture on Faulkner's Light in August on the "pagan quality" of his protagonist Lena. She argues that Faulkner uses Lena to update the classic story of the unwed mother by fusing comedy with the epic road novel. In doing so, he also updates the Greek tradition of the kindness of strangers, drawing attention to it through certain stylistic markers, including the "switchability" between the protagonist and her supporting cast, the use of gerunds as a linguistic safe haven for Lena, and the allegorical naming of Byron and Burden as social types with scripted trajectories. (from oyc.yale.edu)
| Lecture 22 - Faulkner's Light in August |
| Time | Lecture Chapters |
| [00:00:00] | 1. The Pagan Quality of Lena and Light in August |
| [00:08:10] | 2. Updating the Story of the Unwed Mother as Comedy |
| [00:16:17] | 3. Light in August as Faulkner's Epic Road Novel |
| [00:21:12] | 4. The Kindness of Strangers |
| [00:33:42] | 5. The Switchability between Lena and the Supporting Cast |
| [00:36:09] | 6. Switchability Between the Weighty and the Mundane |
| [00:39:19] | 7. Faulkner's Stylized Use of Gerunds |
| [00:43:08] | 8. Allegorical Names and Types |
| References |
| Lecture 22 - Faulkner's Light in August Instructor: Professor Wai Chee Dimock. Credit List [PDF]. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov]. |
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