Absalom, Absalom

William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936) is one of the many texts in Faulkner’s oeuvre that is set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Faulkner is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, a designation earned due to his innovative and stylistic modernist techniques, which he uses to investigate the history and identity of the American South. Faulkner, who grew up in Mississippi and spent the majority of his life there, was deeply interested in the American South as a place of complex culture, identity, and histories of violence and slavery; these ideas permeate his novels and short stories. Faulkner was an American modernist writer who also worked within the Southern Gothic subgenre. In 1949, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contributions to the American novel.

This study guide is based on the 1990 edition of Absalom, Absalom! published by Vintage International.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to slavery, racial violence, rape, incest, and suicide. The source text uses racial slurs including the n-word, which is reproduced and obscured in quotations in this guide.

Plot Summary

Absalom, Absalom! delves into the intricate tapestry of the American South, unwinding a tale of ambition,

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