Faulkner, form, and the anxiety of cinematic influence

Faulkner, Form, and the Anxiety of Cinematic Influence addresses William Faulkners career as it was split between two different disciplines: the craft of the novelist, and the less esteemed occupation of the screenwriter. Although renowned for his efforts in the first of these (for which he would win the Nobel Prize for Literature), screenwriting also constituted a major part of Faulkners work, and saw him contributing to over fifty screenplays during two decades in Hollywood. What was always a division of labor for the author became especially pronounced in the nineteen-forties, when Faulkner worked more intensely than ever in the film industry, and consequently devoted less time to literary composition. This particular moment has been traditionally understood as signalling the steady decline of Faulkners novels in the postwar years and, as such, cinema has shouldered most of the blame for his unhallowed change.However, I argue that the years in question (1942-1954) must be reconceptualised in the critical reckoning, with more regard for precisely the influence that cinema and by extension, screenwriting might have had on Faulkners oeuvre. By analysing three of Faulkners novels, several of his shorter fictional works, and many of his screenplays, I argue that the authors most concentrated period in Hollywood signalled a rupture in his approach to novel writing. Where the influence of film, or the screenplay, is not clearly in evidence in his postwar works, the more compelling chain of influence exists at the level of form. Whether Faulkners late novels react defensively to the dominance of film and other media, or incline towards adaptation as a means of prolonging their significance in the American cultural landscape, the most noteworthy aspect of all the works studied here is their collective recalibration of Faulkners approach to form. With a proper recognition of Faulkners screenwriting experience, I argue, we can gain a much more robust understanding of the influence of cinema on his late style