Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference

Faulkner and Film: July 18-22, 2010

“Faulkner and Film” has the distinction of being the first instance in the 37 years of Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha that we have repeated a conference theme. Over twenty years ago, with “Faulkner, Modernism, and Film,” the conference first endeavored to tackle the question of what Faulkner and film have to do with each other—with the broad concept of “modernism” as an assumed common denominator. That the conference is returning to that theme—and to its (now implicit) common denominator—is indicative of major advances both in Faulkner and film studies during the last two decades. The first has to do with our growing awareness of the impact on Faulkner of his experience in Hollywood, especially in the 1930s, and the second, the prodigious attention to film as being in many respects the epitome of what is meant by the concept of modernism.

“Faulkner and Film” will take up the broad areas of Faulkner’s involvement in film—biographically, aesthetically, culturally, financially—and the parallel universes of Faulkner’s fiction and the world of cinema and the ways they may derive from and impose on each other. In the first of these areas, we are looking for discussions of Faulkner in Hollywood: his work as a screen-writer; his work as a novelist while in Hollywood and the impact of that milieu on his fiction; the biography of his life there: the frustrations, the opportunities, the meaning of the distance from Oxford; the film adaptations of his fiction, including the ideological and cultural politics of adaptation.

In the second area, we are looking for investigations of film as a modernist medium and the similarity and difference between the methods of film makers and Faulkner in contributing to that medium. For example, if a fundamental similarity between film and modernist writing is the use of montage, then a major question to raise is how the juxtaposed elements go together in Faulkner and film, how the space and time between acquires meaning, if not resolution. Another question is the relationship between Faulkner and popular culture, and how film, in which that relationship has always been blurred, may illuminate a comparable blurring that Faulkner critics have often missed. And a third: how the adversarial dynamic of a technological breakthrough that may resist the world that has generated that breakthrough compares with the high modernist Faulkner critiquing a culture that, in many ways, he exemplifies.

We are inviting 40-minute plenary papers and 20-minute panel papers. Plenary papers consist of approximately 5,000 words and will appear in the conference volume published by the University Press of Mississippi. Panel papers consist of approximately 2,500 words, and will be considered by the conference program committee for possible expansion and inclusion in the published volume.

For plenary papers the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style should be used as a guide in preparing manuscripts. Three copies of manuscripts (hard copy only) must be submitted by January 31, 2010. Authors whose papers are selected will receive a waiver of the conference registration fee and lodging at the Inn at Ole Miss from Saturday, July 17 through Thursday, July 22. For short papers, two-page abstracts must be submitted by January 31, 2010, preferably through e-mail attachment. Authors whose papers are selected will receive a reduction of the registration fee to $100. All manuscripts and inquiries should be addressed to Donald Kartiganer, Department of English, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848. Telephone: 662-236-7194, e-mail: dkartiga@olemiss.edu. Decisions for all papers will be made by March 5, 2010.

Faulkner Journal Special Issue

Faulkner and the Metropolis

It has long been axiomatic that modernism is both “about” and a product of the city.  And in myriad examples, modernist culture reveals both its investments in representing urban experience and its formal shaping by metropolitan rhythms, material conditions, and energy. No less than his description of himself as a simple “country farmer,” Faulkner’s largely rural settings would seem to distinguish him from a modernism that is deeply engaged with urban experience.  Yet Faulkner’s work was in fact powerfully affected by his encounter with the city—both as an historical, social reality and as an imaginative construction or space. 

This special issue welcomes a range of methodological approaches: biographical, historical, theoretical, cultural. Some questions these approaches might prompt include the following:  What is the role of both the real and the imagined city in Faulkner?  What impact did time that he spent in cultural centers and capitals have on his life and writing? What cities figure prominently in his work, and what role do those locations play in readers’ understanding of his writing? What thematic issues such as commercialism, industrialization, immigration, or the rise of media technology (all facets of urban modernity) figure in his work?  What ethnic or cultural biases follow from attitudes about the city (such as Jason Compson’s distrust of “New York jews”)? What urban types or institutions figure in his work like the newspaper, the gangster, the detective, or the flanêur? How does Faulkner’s work bear a relation to largely urban phenomena such as the cinema, mass spectacle, or mass politics? What is the role in both modernity and Faulkner’s writing of visuality?  What does it mean, for example, that Faulkner’s modernism has been compared to a painterly school like cubism—one that Ferdinand Leger suggested followed from a new, urban way of “seeing”?  What tropes, strategies, or formal techniques associated with modernity (such as montage, the “shock” aesthetic, or the rapid shifting of mental states) appear in his work? What do we make of Faulkner’s famous dictum – “The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life … and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life” – in light of theories of modernism and of urban modernity that stress the role in both of motion and speed?

The city may also be said to have a presence in Faulkner’s work that we could describe as dialectical. What impact, that is, might the social spaces of the city have had on his fiction’s formal properties? Like the novel form, or even “apocryphal” spaces like Yoknapatawpha, the city has historically been the product of enormous imaginative energy. Papers might explore how theories of postmodernism, space, and geography help understand Faulkner’s “spatial poetics” in connection with urbanism or with a newly global view of modernity.  Essays that consider “Faulkner and the Metropolis” in relation to other writers, disciplines (such as urban or environmental studies), or cultural forms (like film, advertising, or visual culture) are welcome.

Forward questions or paper submissions to Dr. Peter Lurie, English Department, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, plurie@richmond.edu by July 1, 2010.  Electronic submissions preferred.  Please include contact information.

William Faulkner Society Scholarships

The John W. Hunt Memorial Scholarship and the Faulkner Journal Scholarship

The William Faulkner Society offers scholarships for as many as two graduate students to attend the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford , Mississippi .   These awards are funded by generous donations in memory of Faulkner scholar John W. Hunt, author of William Faulkner: Art in Theological Tension, by the Faulkner Journal, and by annual dues from members of the Society.  The scholarships cover the costs of registration for the conference and of the students' choice of an organized day trip during the week.

Graduate students may apply directly for the Hunt / Faulkner Journal Scholarships or be nominated by a faculty member. Each application should include: a letter from the student explaining how the student's work can be enhanced by attending the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference; a current curriculum vitae; and at least one letter of recommendation from a faculty member familiar with the student's work--a letter of nomination satisfies this requirement. Send applications to Jaywatson, President, The Faulkner Society, Department of English, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848 or jwatson@olemiss.edu. Deadline for applications is March 15, 2010.

Call for Papers

Faulkner and Morrison: A Conference Sponsored by the Center for Faulkner Studies
Southeast Missouri State University Cape Girardeau, Missouri, October 28-30, 2010

This "Faulkner and Morrison" conference invites proposals for twenty-minute papers on any topic related to William Faulkner and/or Toni Morrison.  All critical approaches, including theoretical and pedagogical, are welcomed.  We are particularly interested in inter-textual approaches and papers treating such topics as race, gender, class, history, humor, and technique.  Proposals for organized panels are also encouraged.

Expanded versions of the papers will be considered for possible publication in a collection of essays to be published by Southeast Missouri State University Press.

E-mail a 250-word abstract by May 31, 2010, to: cfs@semo.edu

Inquiries should be directed to Robert Hamblin at rhamblin@semo.edu or (573) 651-2628, or Christopher Rieger at crieger@semo.edu or (573) 651-2620.

Faulkner and Morrison Undergraduate Writing Contest

Undergraduate students from any institution are encouraged to submit papers for this conference.  These papers (15-20-minutes) may be on Faulkner, Morrison, or both.  The authors of the top three undergraduate submissions will receive cash prizes respectively of $100, $75, and $50; a waiver of the conference registration fee; and an invitation to read the winning entries at the conference (winners must participate in the conference to qualify for the cash award).  Contest submissions must be received by the Center for Faulkner Studies by August 1, 2010.  Undergraduate submissions not awarded cash prizes will be considered for inclusion among the presentations at the conference.