William Faulkner and the Bible: Modernism, Metaphysics and Prophecy

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Though William Faulkner is one of the most significant and critically scrutinized novelists of the 20th century, both the author and his work remain shrouded in mystery. How did this seemingly provincial writer from the rural American South, with almost no formal education, come to be one of the most internationally influential, acclaimed, and debated writers of the 20th century? Why do his morbid and exhaustingly difficult stories continue to inspire critical interest with each new generation of readers? What questions and concerns animated his radically experimental imagination? Of all the mysteries that continue to haunt this vast critical legacy, there is perhaps none more intractable than the matter of religion. Though Faulkner's novels are charged with biblical references and elaborate Christian symbolism there is no scholarly consensus as to the significance and function of these disorienting and often grotesque biblical allusions, or even whether the fiction is grappling with any distinctly religious questions or concerns. Though some theologically minded critics, such as Thomas Merton, have heralded Faulkner’s fiction as biblically prophetic, there are others who interpret his work as fundamentally secular, deeply critical of religion, and even nihilistic. This course will explore the matter of Faulkner and Religion by focusing on the influence of the Christian and Hebrew scriptures on several short stories, public addresses, and major works. The course will not only provide an opportunity for deep reflection on the relationship between theology and literature—metaphysics and modernism—but also the opportunity to engage one of the most enduring, challenging, and rewarding novelists of the 20th century.