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William Faulkner is justly praised as the foremost chronicler of the American South, particularly with regard to his portrayal of the racial, sexual, socio-economic, and familial conflicts underlying the stereotypic facade of gracious hospitality. The legacy of this 1949 winner of the Nobel prize for literature extends, however, beyond the South, for Faulkner has been cited as the most important American writer of the twentieth century and ranked with Conrad, Joyce, even Shakespeare. This course explores the development of Faulkner's psychological themes and innovative techniques in representative short stories, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, The Hamlet, and Go Down, Moses. During Spring Break, students will have the option of visiting Oxford and other areas of Mississippi that served as sources for many of Faulkner's fictional settings.