Modernism In William Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury

Modernism is a movement which started around the end of the 19th century. Modernism affected many scientific fields and arts and especially literature. Literary modernism is characterized by breaking away from traditions of the previous century and the use of innovative narrative techniques and experimentation in writing. William Faulkner’s novel the Sound and The Fury is often considered as one of the most influential modernist novel in American literature.

This chapter offers the literary background needed for this study. It focuses on explaining modernism. In addition, this chapter aims to investigate the use of major modernist literary techniques in William Faulkner’s novel the Sound and The Fury. 2. Modernism: ‘Modernism’, generally refers to modern thoughts and character. The

Definition of Modernism:

In the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (2001), Chris Baldick defines Modernism as: a general term applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and Avant-garde trends in the literature (and other arts) of the early 20th century, including Symbolism, Futurism, Expressionism, Imagism, Vorticism, Dada, and Surrealism, along with the innovations of unaffiliated writers. (159)

Accordingly, modernists sought to detach themselves from former conventions and invent new trends. Furthermore, Baldick notices that: “Modernist writing is described mainly by a dismissal of 19th century customs and of their agreement in the middle of a writer and peruser” (Baldick, 159). Therefore, it is evident that modernists’ main purpose was attempting to achieve a split from Victorian traditions. The modern era witnessed the emergence of innovative styles and experimentations. Among the pioneers of experimenting with these techniques we can cite James Joyes, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, in addition to poets such as T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound who is best known for his slogan of “make it new” in regard to modernism.

2.2. Historical background of