Faulkner and Racism

Faulkner and Racism ARTHUR F. KINNEY The single most indelible fact about William Faulkner's work is his persistent concentration on observing and recording the culture and country in which he was born; what is most striking now, as we look back on his legacy from our own, is the enormous courage and cost of that task. Faulkner's Lafayette County, in northeastern Mississippi, not far from the battle sites of Brice's Cross Roads, Corinth, and Shiloh, …

…recklessly or nonsensically "heroic" in defending the Sartoris position. The Unvanquished thus is a link of Sartoris past with Sartoris future; at the same time, it is a judgment upon the one and a clear view ahead of the other. If Faulkner's work were viewed in terms of the sequence of his examinations of the past and present of the County, The Unvanquished would stand significantly at or near the head of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**