The refined working topic for my research paper focuses on analyzing Faulkner’s commentary on fascism or fascist ideology through characters in A Light in August and The Sound and the Fury. Specifically analyzing Percy Grimm, a particularly vicious character and one in which Faulkner famously exclaims he “invented the Nazis before the Nazis” as well as analyzing the prejudices and intense narcissism of Jason Compson. By analyzing these two characters, and perhaps additional ones in the other novels such as Caddy Compson as a starch contrast, or characters in Absalom!, Absalom! if I have time, will further understand how Faulkner has envisioned the American South as well as deconstructing the apparent battle for the soul of Southern Identity. Especially in the multi frontal war (you could say a World War of identities and ideas) of Christian dogma, Racism, and Progressive change.

Primary Source: A Light in August

When it comes to analyzing racialized ideology that has been translated into fascist ideology, A Light in August is a prime novel to examine and focus my research paper. As mentioned in the preface, the character Percy Grimm appears in the novel along with his violent actions of murdering Joe Christmas, a mixed raced man. Questions arise about the famous phrase of how Faulkner “invented the Nazis before the Nazis” via the character of Percy Grimm. Moreover, what do the consequences of Percy’s actions, specifically his ability to organize hate, mean for the identity of the people that live in Yaknapatawpha county?

Primary Source: The Sound and the Fury

While not as obviously connected to fascism as the previous primary source, I think it is useful to analyze the character of Jason Compson and his obsessive narcissism, specifically blaming most other people for his failures in life, including the failure to take on any ounce of personal responsibility. While this might appear as just a psychological analysis of the character, as the story of his backstory unfolds, he and his family’s name, the Compsons, have had a long lineage with the slave trade that has built the family fortune. Now that free involuntary labor is no longer accessible to what was once the family’s seemingly infinite growth in wealth, the ability to reinvent themselves in a new southern economy proves difficult for members like Jason, who often times blames minority groups for his and his family’s failures to save their respectability and prestige. This character would prove quite fruitful in the analysis of the identity of the South, particularly with its racially segregated past, and how the slow but systematic deconstruction of racial oppression, tests the endurance and viability of members of this society that have specifically benefited from the previous system. Furthermore, how characters like Jason Compson might be one of the millions of people who became prime targets to joining fascist movements.

Source 1: Spoth, Daniel. “Totalitarian Faulkner: The Nazi Interpretation of ‘Light in August’ and ‘Absalom, Absalom!’.” ELH, vol. 78, no. 1, 2011, pp. 239–257.

This text is particularly useful in that it researches how the Reichsschrifttumskammer (RSK), which was the Nazi government agency tasked with organizing what types of literature would be published in Nazi Germany, somehow published not only Faulkner’s Light in August, but also Absalom, Absalom!. What is interesting is that Faulkner does not shed any good praise, to say the least, on some of the characters that would most align with fascist ideology and militarism (i.e. Percy Grimm organizing lynchings and propaganda), and yet still, both of these books were published during the rise of Hitler’s Germany. This article investigate how RSK interpreted Faulkner’s work and how they allowed Faulkner’s fiction to circulate their growing empire.

Source 2: Meyerson, Gregory, and Jim Neilson. “Pulp Fiction: The Aesthetics of Anti-Radicalism in William Faulkner’s ‘Light in August.’” Science & Society, vol. 72, no. 1, 2008, pp. 11–42.

Building off of Source 1, this next source interprets Faulkner’s work through a Marxist lens, a noticeable contrast to the analysis of the Spoth article. It focuses on the political economic conditions that fuel the motivations of characters in the novel, particularly the class struggle “flamed by socioeconomic catastrophe” of the great depression and general post slavery era of American history. I think this analysis is interesting and useful in comparing some of the similarities of the struggles of Germany’s (and other fascist states) reclaiming over the loss of its identity after the Treaty of Versailles, as well as the South’s loss of identity after the abolition of slavery and into the Jim Crow era. Specifically, how the characters represented in A Light in August have manifested as a precursor to some of the real world events of World War II.

Source 3: Follansbee, Jeanne A. “Sweet Fascism in the Piney Woods”: Absalom, Absalom! as Fascist Fable.” Modernism/modernity, vol. 18 no. 1, 2011, p. 67–94.

This article attempts to analyze the tropes of fascism that make up the novel of Absalom, Absalom!. Particularly analyzing the similarities between character Thomas Sutpen and the fascist leaders that arose in and around World War II. The article analyses what was once the very real fears of the United States birthing its own Hitler in the American South, even long before the fascist movements arose in Europe.

Source 4: Rollyson, Carl. “The Life of William Faulkner: The Past is Never Dead, 1897-1934.” University of Virginia Press, vol. 1, 2020, p. 394–500

This book details an extensive overview of the life of the man himself, Mr. William Faulkner, including the inspirations and ideas deeply ingrained in his many works and writings. Chapter 6, titled Return, particularly focuses on the creation of Faulkner’s works that address the ideological manifestations of fascism in his books A Light in August and Absalom, Absalom!.

Source 5: Faulkner, William. “Dry September.” HarperPerenial Classics. 1931.

This source is a short story that Faulkner wrote in 1931. It details the gruesome lynching of a black man after being accused of attacking a white woman. This story is particularly disturbing but is useful nonetheless for its exact depictions of racialized divisions and anger in the American South post-slavery. Particularly, how this one example, representing countless numbers of lynching done to African Americans could have been a precursor similar to the events of fascist and other ideologically totalitarian states in Europe during the 20^th century.

Source 6: Atkinson, Ted. “Faulkner and the Great Depression: Aesthetics, Ideology, and Cultural Politics.” University of Georgia Press, 2006.

This final source summarizes essentially the essence of my working topic for this research paper, how Faulkner’s writings represent a battleground of ideas not only through the struggle of the characters in his novels, but in the American South itself. How Faulkner wrote ahead of his time especially about all the different ways the soul of the South would be tested and fought over during the time of the great depression and before the rise of authoritarian or totalitarian fascist dictatorships in Europe.

Post Script: Since we as a class have not yet finished Absalom, Absalom!, I do not know if I will have time to give it the analytical justice it deserves. But I will do my best because it does fit in well with my paper topic.