Description: This book argues that Faulkner unlocked his truest potential as a modernist artist by turning away from the modernity of the Great War toward aspects of modernity closer to his Mississippi home.
Review Quotes: "a stunning accomplishment" -- Peter Lurie, Study the South
"An exciting and well-considered study, the book is exceedingly well written and structured. This is the rare scholarly monograph that would be an excellent textbook for seminars on American modernism and Faulkner seminars. Watson succeeds in making the literary giant of modernism 'new'. Highly recommended." -- Michelle E. Moore, Modern Language Review"a groundbreaking work of new materialist and radical historicist interpretation that places Faulkner's work at the heart of early twentieth-century modernization in the South." -- Joseph Kuhn, European Journal of American Studies"William Faulkner and the Faces of Modernity is a major achievement, demonstrating Watson's wide reading in new modernist studies and a specialist's depth in the fiction by and the criticism on William Faulkner. The study is consistently innovative and, in the case of chapter 6, startlingly timely." -- John N. Duvall, American Literary History"William Faulkner and the Faces of Modernity is an ambitious book that covers the whole Faulknerian oeuvre through a succession of perspectives that, in turn, display a remarkable modernity in the thoroughly refreshing way they combine literature and history, fiction and facts, words and statistics, text and image. It is also a tremendously rich and generous book, which reveals its author's extensive culture in an exceptional variety of fields." -- Frédérique Spill, Cercles