GRANIT ZELA
DOI:
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the narrative techniques and structural features of William Faulkner’s novel Absalom Absalom! (1936). In this work, Faulkner emerges as a modernist prose writer employing a complex narrative style and techniques, explored through the novel’s intricate structure, its narrative characters and its avant-garde literary techniques. The study is based on a detailed examination of the novel’s text, interweaving synthetic and analytical approaches to highlight the fragmentation of narrative time accross the accounts of the various character-narrators, as well as narrative techniques Faulkner employs as a writer known for radical innovation and experimentation. The study concludes that Faulkner’s complex method of narration leads to the dissolution of traditional narrative authority: the authority of the narrating characters is never complete, while the external narrator is called into question. Retellings and reinterpretations introduce new perspectives that require repeated reassessment of supposedly known facts – a constant need which constitutes the organizing principle of the novel’s subject matter.
Keywords: William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, character narrators, narrative techniques.