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 ..................................................................... --- from list phillitcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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