This book reexamines William Faulkner's If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (1939), a novel of increasing sociohistorical importance despite being one of Faulkner's lesser known and studied works. Wainwright traces Faulkner's 1925 visit to Paris, where he frequented major and minor art galleries and exhibitions and gained a formative appreciation of color and form, color as form, and form as color. Fauvism, the art movement of "wild beasts" led at the time by Henri Matisse and inspired by Nietzsche, offered Faulkner this depth. Wainwright argues that the chain of recognition from Nietzsche to Matisse to Faulkner, while fundamental to Faulkner's canon, comes startlingly to the fore in If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, a book that measures the sociopolitical as well as the cultural situation of an epoch, a period of episodic violence on a global scale, a time of individual bloodshed and collective loss. In surveying the Fauvist bedrock to Faulkner's career as a writer, this book draws together philosophy, art, and literature before analyzing their influence on him. This process harnesses the thoughts of Faulkner's contemporaries, both relevant authors and relevant critics, voices that often go unheard in Faulkner studies. The result is a profound meditation on the secular eschatology of If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, a doctrine comprising conception, abortion, birth, and death.
| ISBN: | 9783032196194 |
| Publication date: | 22nd June 2026 |
| Author: | Michael Wainwright |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 303 pages |
| Series: | American Literature Readings in the 21st Century |
| Genres: |
Literature: history and criticism Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Philosophy: aesthetics Literary theory The arts: general topics |
This book reexamines William Faulkner's If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (1939), a novel of increasing sociohistorical importance despite being one of Faulkner's lesser known and studied works. Wainwright traces Faulkner's 1925 visit to Paris, where he frequented major and minor art galleries and exhibitions and gained a formative appreciation of color and form, color as form, and form as color. Fauvism, the art movement of "wild beasts" led at the time by Henri Matisse and inspired by Nietzsche, offered Faulkner this depth. Wainwright argues that the chain of recognition from Nietzsche to Matisse to Faulkner, while fundamental to Faulkner's canon, comes startlingly to the fore in If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, a book that measures the sociopolitical as well as the cultural situation of an epoch, a period of episodic violence on a global scale, a time of individual bloodshed and collective loss. In surveying the Fauvist bedrock to Faulkner's career as a writer, this book draws together philosophy, art, and literature before analyzing their influence on him. This process harnesses the thoughts of Faulkner's contemporaries, both relevant authors and relevant critics, voices that often go unheard in Faulkner studies. The result is a profound meditation on the secular eschatology of If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem, a doctrine comprising conception, abortion, birth, and death.
Faulkner's Conditional Conception features in the following genres: Literature: history and criticism, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Philosophy: aesthetics, Literary theory, The arts: general topics
Faulkner's Conditional Conception is available in Hardback
Faulkner's Conditional Conception was written by Michael Wainwright and published by Palgrave Macmillan an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland
Faulkner's Conditional Conception has 303 pages
Yes it is part of American Literature Readings in the 21st Century series
£98.99