Benjy's narrative as postmodern discourse.

[Researching]

hi am a new member here... thought this site could quench our literary thirst...
i am actually working on a thesis on the first section of the novel "the SOund and the Fury"- yes, of course it is Benjy's section- A tale told by an idiot boy. i am planning to justify it as the narrative having postmodern sensibilty.
I read re-read on postmodernism. when i read for the first time i decided on the topic and submitted on the proposal. and it got accepted. with a great excitement i re-read on pomo more, and i am here asking u to help me with some points and some directions.
i have already finished a chapter on the narratological ananlysis on the section. so please guide me somehow with the direction to travel the road with pomo at one side and the Benjy's section at the other.
please someone boost me up by saying that it is possible to write it atleast for twenty odd pages....!!!

[Virgil]

Welcome Researching. I'm glad you stopped by lit net. As to your question, you need to define what you mean by "post modern discourse." The Sound and the Fury is a modern novel, not a post modern. I'm also curious as to what you mean by "narratological analysis." Frankly this sounds over intellectual, which means you can easily write 20 odd pages on it. Whether those 20 pages mean anything is another question. ;)

[Jozanny]

Researching: Be a little more explicit in what kind of assistance you need setting up Benjy's section as a prerequisite model for post-modern novels. This is not a good community to come to for peer review, by the way. The majority of posters do not care to take the next step and look at theory and application, and it is hard to find such discourse for free online, though I do belong to one such group. Part of this is economic. Instructors basically mortgage themselves to the terminal degree, so digital freedom of access to critical theory will remain a thorny problem even while the consumer publishing market continues to topple against e-readers and e-files.

[Modest Proposal]

I really hope this doesn't sound rude and that it may make people more open to helping you in the future...

That said, I tell my students--who being Sophomore's in college, you'd think would know this--that I do not answer questions that require any work when the asker does not take the time to put work into their request. It seems a little absurd that you ask for other's time and help with a theory-dense literary question but you don't take the time to capitalize sentences and frame you're question in a manner that it would be reasonable to answer. As it stands we are asked to wade through poor grammar, make sense of your vague questions and then do the work that we think you want.

What I suggest is writing out a clear, concise, grammatically/syntactically correct question that we can help you with. Also specificity is nice.

I would be glad to lend a hand if you want to try this.

[Jozanny]

Modest: I do not think your post is rude. I make posting errors often but do try to correct them, and if Researching is doing a graduate level thesis you are right. I had to internally parse what seemed like a vague plea. We all need support from time to time, as students, or teachers, or writers, but I doubt I would have gotten the OP's post past my 11th grade English teacher, an elegant woman who said we wanted the grades but didn't want to do the work ;).

If I had had the time, I would have attempted to address this as you have.

[Michael T]

I really hope this doesn't sound rude and that it may make people more open to helping you in the future...

That said, I tell my students--who being Sophomore's in college, you'd think would know this--that I do not answer questions that require any work when the asker does not take the time to put work into their request. It seems a little absurd that you ask for other's time and help with a theory-dense literary question but you don't take the time to capitalize sentences and frame you're question in a manner that it would be reasonable to answer. As it stands we are asked to wade through poor grammar, make sense of your vague questions and then do the work that we think you want.

What I suggest is writing out a clear, concise, grammatically/syntactically correct question that we can help you with. Also specificity is nice.

I would be glad to lend a hand if you want to try this.

:thumbs_up:thumbs_up:thumbs_up:thumbs_up:cool::D

[Katy North]

Hello Researching. Sorry, but narratological is not in the dictionary. You might want to instead write "analysis of Falkner's narration" or "anaylsis of Benjy's narrative".

Discuss this question with your adviser. When I was an undergrad I wrote an honor's thesis that turned out to be 30 pages long. At first my argument was a little weak, but my adviser kept seeing places where I could expand and discuss my topic more in depth. That's what advisers are for. They don't do the work for you, but they are a valuable resource. And I'm sure that if your adviser approved the project, he or she must have seen potential in it and will give you a big ole' pat on the back and a point in the right direction if you come to them worried about your project.

[MUMUKSHA]

I was very happy to find someone interested in the book. Thanks to you guys I don't think Researcher would want to visit litnet anymore.
Why did everybody pounce on him with such ferocity? I never saw anybody reacting that way to bad English anywhere else on the forum. Couldn't you people just:chillpill:

[Jozanny]

I was very happy to find someone interested in the book. Thanks to you guys I don't think Researcher would want to visit litnet anymore.
Why did everybody pounce on him with such ferocity? I never saw anybody reacting that way to bad English anywhere else on the forum. Couldn't you people just:chillpill:

Mum, that a student writing a master level thesis cannot post in clear and articulate sentences is cause for concern. I know some of the more mature members here complain about students asking for help, but to me it is not as clear cut. I freely engage experts in Henry James online, and have probably tried their patience more than once, but their expertise is invaluable--but what I would not do to them is say "I want to write an article for the Henry James Review and gee, I don't know whatever topic to pursue, please help!"

When I do ask them things, I ask specific and pointed questions, but the legwork is on me.

So, I can more easily help someone who already knows their thesis, but has a specific hurdle over which they could use some guidance.

I wouldn't have been able to help this OP, but assistance might have been more forthcoming if they had a specific question instead of merely indicating that he or she did not know how to prove his or her thesis construct.

And interest in the book doesn't mean you cannot start your own Faulkner thread just because an overwhelmed student is no longer using the forum.

[Hank Stamper]

Hello Researching. Sorry, but narratological is not in the dictionary. You might want to instead write "analysis of Falkner's narration" or "anaylsis of Benjy's narrative".

narratological is a word... it just might not be in your dictionary!

narratology is the study of narratives, narratological is the adjective

[Manchegan]

I might be sticking my foot right in my mouth here, but wasn't Benjy an adult as he narrated the story? He just flashed back to his childhood as if he were living it over again, right?

If so, you gotta wonder about a thesis that deals with the narration of "an idiot boy."

[Modest Proposal]

I was very happy to find someone interested in the book. Thanks to you guys I don't think Researcher would want to visit litnet anymore.
Why did everybody pounce on him with such ferocity? I never saw anybody reacting that way to bad English anywhere else on the forum. Couldn't you people just:chillpill:

I didn't notice ferocity? And I'm sorry but I didn't notice someone "interested in the book" either.

What I noticed was a person who created an account to get some help with homework and a few people on the website pointing out that, tutoring is not the point of this site.

Ironically, I actually offered to even help the person. I just politely asked that they put in at least a fraction of the work that they are asking me to put in. If you are asking someone to do your analysis, you can at least have the decency to put some care into your question.

I'll let you guess whether the individual took me up on the offer and messaged me a reasonable or specific question.

[MUMUKSHA]

I didn't notice ferocity? And I'm sorry but I didn't notice someone "interested in the book" either.

What I noticed was a person who created an account to get some help with homework and a few people on the website pointing out that, tutoring is not the point of this site.

Ironically, I actually offered to even help the person. I just politely asked that they put in at least a fraction of the work that they are asking me to put in. If you are asking someone to do your analysis, you can at least have the decency to put some care into your question.

I'll let you guess whether the individual took me up on the offer and messaged me a reasonable or specific question.

I know you guys aren't wrong in you objections. I was only upset because I like the book and I wanted to know what the others who read it had to say about it.

[Modest Proposal]

I know you guys aren't wrong in you objections. I was only upset because I like the book and I wanted to know what the others who read it had to say about it.

No worries at all. It is actually one of my favorite books and authors of all time. I just read Absalom, Absalom! which is another incredible Faulkner read and is tied thematically, and by one character, to The Sound and the Fury. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

[MUMUKSHA]

No worries at all. It is actually one of my favorite books and authors of all time. I just read Absalom, Absalom! which is another incredible Faulkner read and is tied thematically, and by one character, to The Sound and the Fury. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

I would love to read more of Faulkner and will try to get my hands on Absalom, Absalom!
Since you seem to have read The Sound and the Fury, could you clear a couple of points for me?
Why does Quentin insist that he committed incest?
What does the honeysuckle signify and why does it seem to torture Quentin?
It's been a while since I read the book last so I hope I haven't got things muddled.:skep:

[Modest Proposal]

I would love to read more of Faulkner and will try to get my hands on Absalom, Absalom!
Since you seem to have read The Sound and the Fury, could you clear a couple of points for me?
Why does Quentin insist that he committed incest?
What does the honeysuckle signify and why does it seem to torture Quentin?
It's been a while since I read the book last so I hope I haven't got things muddled.:skep:

It's been a couple years for me too, but I remember the importance of the issues you've raised and also Faulkner's love of psychology. It's important to remember that Faulkner, and many other authors, were living in a time where psychology was fairly new and its boundaries where unknown. Faulkner was one of the authors interested in exploring the limits of psychology's influence.

That said, many have noted that Quentin seems to suffer from psychosis and monomania--at least in so far as the 19th century figured them. His obsession with the fall of the south, its inevitable fall, is conflated with his sister's 'fall'. It is helpful to reread the very interesting passages by the father on virginity, that virginity is only defined by something NOT occurring. In this way, since something DID happen to negate her virginity and Quentin couldn't stop it, he feels responsible for her defilement, her fall, the south's fall, he is incestuous in that her sexuality was consummated because he couldn't stop it, because OF him. Of course this is just the speculation of someone several hundred books removed from having read the novel.

The honeysuckle's as I recall work in several ways. Not only is it a sign of spring--tied to birth and thus obviously to sex--but more importantly, I think he sees her doing something while smelling the honeysuckle. This is the psychological imprinting idea that was popular in Faulkner, that we have extremely strong mental and psychological ties to sensory memory. If you look to Benjy's narrative his narrative is not chronologically told, but sensorially, when Benjy hurts himself on a nail he remembers to the last time he hurt himself on a nail, when he sees something his mind jumps to the last time he saw it. This idea is proliferated in the text.

Actually, the psychology and incest/family/gender issues will be more clear in Quentin after reading Absalom, Absalom!

[MUMUKSHA]

Thank you for clarifying my doubts:smile5:. I really feel like returning to The Sound and the Fury now. But, if Quentin is the character that is a common thread to the two books, I'd want to read Absalom, Absalom! first.