"A Geographical Approach to William Faulkner's "The Bear

Bibliographic Data

ID4487447
AuthorsCharles S Aiken (corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume71
Issue4
Pages446
Publication date1981-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/214508
OpenAlexW2317225778
LanguageEN
Citations received6

W A ILLIAM Faulkner's story, The Bear, is among the most anthologized, read, and criticized of serious fictional works by twentieth-century American authors. One collection identified eight critical approaches to the story, but a geographical perspective was not among them, despite Faulkner's overt and symbolic use of geography.' My purpose is to demonstrate that although voluminous critical material on The Bear exists, a geographical perspective can provide additional insights and can clarify certain themes. I develop two interrelated topics. One is Faulkner's sources for the fictional setting of the story; the other is the theme of landscape change in the story. The Bear is a part of Go Down, Moses, which was published in the spring of 1942. A few days after the book was released, a short, simplified version of the story appeared in the May 9 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. With one of its five sections omitted, The Bear was republished in 1955 as a section of Big Woods, a collection of Faulkner's hunting stories.2 Of the three versions of the story, critics consider the one in Go Down, Moses to have the greatest intellectual depth.3 Two major themes have been identified in the story. One is the wilderness theme that is found primarily in parts one, two, three, and five; the second, or racial, theme, is the relationship between the McCaslin family and their slaves and descendants, that is presented in part four

Genealogy · Geography · American Environmental and Regional History · American Literature and Culture · History

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub