FAULKNER & YOKNAPATAWPHA “Faulkner and Mystery” July 19–23, 2009

For over half a century now, the literary version of what Faulkner called “the best of all talking” has been the hunting down of the mystery of his fiction. The sentences have been parsed, chronologies ordered, plots and character genealogies summarized and treed—yet what might be called the controlling vision, the sense of human meaning in the world that Faulkner articulates, is as elusive as ever. As more than one critic has put it, “we ain’t got the dog yet.”

A recent discovery in Faulkner studies is the extent to which this high modernist reached out to what might be considered unlikely sources for his material and his strategies for making use of it. One of the most prevalent is the popular detective fiction of his time, particularly of the “hard-boiled” variety, as well as the film version of the genre. Once we attend to the typical convolutions of detection, the theme of “mystery” in Faulkner’s fiction begins to swell disproportionately.

Indeed, is there a Faulkner novel that lacks it? Why exactly does Addie Bundren wish to be buried in Jefferson, her only stated memory of which is a single sardonic sentence spoken by her father? What is Joe Christmas’s racial identity, and is that the object of his quest? And, of course, why did Thomas Sutpen reject Charles Bon for his son-in-law, a fatal decision still being pondered in Jefferson 50 years later? These and similar questions have been with us so long that we sometimes forget that they are a common staple of Faulkner’s work, and that none of them is ever definitively resolved.

The 36th Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference will explore for five days “mystery” in Faulkner. In addition to the scholars announced in the previous issue of the Southern Register—Hosam Aboul-Ela, University of Houston, Susan V. Donaldson, College of William and Mary, Richard Godden, University of California, Irvine, Michael Gorra, Smith College, Donald M. Kartiganer, University of Mississippi, Sean Mc- Cann, Wesleyan University, Noel Polk, Mississippi State University, and Philip Weinstein, Swarthmore College—there will be 12 panelists: Kelley Hayden, University of Nevada, Lisa Hinrichsen, University of Arkansas, Margaret Rayburn Kramar, University of Kansas, Sarah Mahurin Mutter, Yale University, John Padgett, Brevard College, Daniel Pecchenino, University of California, Santa Barbara, Conor Picken, Louisiana State University, Marta Puxan, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Esther Sanchez-Pardo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Rachel Watson, University of Chicago, Rachel Walsh, Stony Brook University, and Randall Wilson, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. topics will be Michael Gorra on Faulkner’s plots about plots, narratives designed to explore a world of secrecy and desires; Sean McCann on the tension between Mystery (spiritual) and mysteries (epistemological), which in Sanctuary, Knight’s Gambit, and Intruder in the Dust becomes the tension between law and justice; a reading by Richard Godden of the mythologies of “Red Leaves” as they are manifested in red-heeled shoes, the body of Moketubbe, the snake called “Grandfather,” and the story’s odd title.

Other topics will be the trope of the detective-as-bachelor in The Town and The Mansion (Daniel Pecchenino), alcohol and prohibition in Sanctuary (Conor Picken), the forensic trail in “The Bear” and Intruder in the Dust (Rachel Watson), and repetition and the uncanny in Absalom, Absalom! and Go Down, Moses (Rachel Walsh). One of the benefits of approaching Faulkner’s work through the perspective of mystery is that it increases the range of critical speculation to cover not only the standard texts but some of those less often studied.

Adding to the discussion of mystery in Faulkner and in their own work will be a panel of three notable practitioners of crime fiction: Ace Atkins, Jere Hoar, and Daniel Woodrell. There will also be a showing of The Story of Temple Drake, a rarely seen film made two years after the sensational arrival of Faulkner’s Sanctuary on the literary scene.

Other program events will include sessions on “Teaching Faulkner,” conducted by James Carothers, University of Kansas, Charles Peek, Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Terrell Tebbetts, Lyon College, and Theresa Towner, University of Texas at Dallas; a discussion of “Collecting Faulkner” by Seth Berner; and an exhibition of Faulkner books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia at the John Davis Williams Library. There will also be guided daylong tours of north Mississippi, the Delta, and Memphis; a picnic served at Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak; and “Faulkner on the Fringe”—an “open mike” evening at the Southside Gallery.

Discount rates for the conference are available for groups of five or more students. Inexpensive dormitory housing is available for all registrants. Contact Robert Fox at rfox@olemiss.edu for details. There are also a limited number of waivers of registration for graduate students. Contact Donald Kartiganer at dkartiga@olemiss.edu for details. Further information on the program, registration, course credit, accommodations, and travel can be found on the conference Web site: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner.

Donald Kartiganer