File spoon-archives/phillitcrit.archive/phillitcrit_2000/phillitcrit.0008, message 52


Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 07:36:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: Howard Hastings <hhasting-AT-osf1.gmu.edu>
Subject: Re: PLC: odours, races etc. (was Fairness to Faulkner)


On Wed, 9 Aug 2000 Boris.Vidovic-AT-sea.fi wrote:

  Faulkner lived in the 20th century
> in the American South most of his life - I believe the US members of the
> list know much better what that means then I do. It seems quite normal
> to me that he shared at least some of the prejudices of the community he
> belonged to (just as members of the academy, or film archives, fascists,
> Marxists etc. have their own prejudices - some more drastic then
> others). 

The question now is, why do so many still have to "disconnect" Faulkner's
work from his prejudices and those of his community.   French students and
professors don't seem to react so huffily when one raises the issue of
Celine's anti-semitism.  They don't set about proving it "isn't there."
 
> The question is: when you, for instance, teach Faulkner - how much would
> you linger upon his racist attitudes? Would it completely overshadow his
> merits as a writer? Or would you put the stress on his literature and
> just mention his personal faults (drinking, racism, beating his wife,
> being cruel to beetles, getting many parking tickets, whatever)?

In case anyone missed the thoughts I have already shared on the subject:

  1. In undergraduate introductory courses (the only ones in which I have
     taught Faulkner), I have and would never point out a single passage
     and say "look, racism!"  My job at that level is to try and get
     students to read the text as literature, which means in part paying
     close attention to how statements function in reference to other
     fictional statements.  I don't want to do anything that will
     encourage them to pull one statement out of literary context and
     treat it as an assertion of authorial belief.   The issue of race
     would in any case likely arise from simple use of the n-word, and
     not because some student noticed that non-white characters lack
     complexity or represent natural forces. 

 2. In an upper division course, which I would not feel comfortable 
    teaching without a lot of prep work, I would certainly raise the
    issue of racism and social/historical context, but not 
    until everyone had read a good chunk of Faulkner and written 
    something about some of his work.  Even here my goal would not
    be to assert that "racism is everywhere, everyone please stop."
    It would be to make connections between literary and non-literary
    discourse. 

 3. At any level, the class issue would be much more prominent in any
    course I taught.  In Virginia, at least, that is more offensive
    than raising racial issues. 

hh
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