The saga of yoknapatawpha county: the apprehension of a social world in transformation

Abstract

This article will point William Faulkner’ words that refer to saga of Yoknapatawpha: Sartoris, O som e a fúria, Absalão, Absalão, Os indomáveis, Réquiem para uma freira, Desça Moisés, O povoado, A cidade e A mansão. Reading these novels will demonstrate to us the extent of Faulkner’s fictionalization process, so them it is possible to grasp since the foundation of Jefferson, fictional town, through by donation of land to Sutpen, done by Chikasaw Indians, until the constitution of the domain of Snopes, real moneymakers, opposed to the fall of traditional families as is the case of Sartoris and Compsons. This path will be done by, firstly, Ian Watt’s considerations about the ascension of the novel, specially as for the time question. Later we will point the relation of the modernist techniques, used by Faulkner, with the historical context of USA: the end of the heroic phase of the bourgeoisie and with the Faulkner’s time conception; for these last two questions, we will base our considerations on Jean-Paul Sartre done in Sartoris, de William Faulkner and on Carlos Azevedo: Do modernismo em William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying.