CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 273 7.0. Preliminaries This study explores the relation between Modernism and Postmodernism as well as between literature and theory by examining the works of master novelist William Faulkner. Specifically, examining Faulkner's four novels; '""The Sound and the Fury", "As I Lay Dying", "Light in August" and "Absalom, Absalom!" as proto- modem texts which, when examined in the light of Postmodern theories such as Lyotard's "incredulity in metanarrative", Bakhtinian polyphony, Heideger's theory of Language, and Ihab Hassan's postmodern theory inform the transitionfi"ommodernism to postmodernism. The present research treats author's works as a lens through which to view the modernist and postmodernist features. The result is both a re-vision of Faulkner's masterworks and a re-examination of the differences between modernism and postmodernism. First, taking a modem approach in examination of Faulkner's novels, then taking a postmodem approach in evaluating the author's work, makes clear the relation between literary modemism and postmodemism and unearths rich analyses which benefit scholars of modemism and postmodemism alike.

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 274 7.1. Faulkner, Modernism and Post-modernism To conclude, it can be said that, highlighting the elements of literary modernism such as stream-of-consciousness, multiple narrations, blurring of distinction between genres, etc., along with the postmodern features such as heterodoxy, transgression and the rejection of universal truth, in Faulkner's fiction through this study lead us to claim that, Faulkner is much more than a modernist. We might say that just as Shakespeare is a playwright both of the Renaissance and for all ages, so Faulkner is a novelist both of the modem period and beyond it. And it is precisely postmodernism, with its differences from modernism. The disability of language to represent reality, rejection of universal truth, heterodoxy and transgression are some of the assumptions shared among postmodernist writers and critics. All these assumption have been considered in relation to Faulkner's fiction, turning most often to Absalom, Absalom! and. As I Lay Dying, appropriately enough, almost always coming to a unique conclusion. The narrative strategy of Absalom, Absalom!, specifically, its diction, the multiple uses of "perhaps" and "maybe", points to the

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 275 novel's grasp of the fictious state of truth as a "pattern of uncertainty" which embraces the postmodern rejection of truth. In The Sound and the Fury, the character of the novel, expresses the postmodern nature of his perception through his difficulty with time. Furthermore, he describes words as mere tools which people use with each other with, and books as ordered certitudes with little connection to reality.at this level,quentin rejects both language and all the universal truths which writers have used to describe it. In this sense. He has moved from modernism's difficulty of knowing to postmodernism's impossibility of knowing. At the same time, postmodernism prefers "local narrative" and rejects "master narrative" because the term itself implies that if a narrative is master, it is authourative and thus can legitimize or delegitimize various local narratives, making the many one, the multiple into versions of the single. This postmodernism traces its way into Faulkner's fiction and criticism. This postmodern narrative technique might be seen in his fiction, where "no authoritative voice confirms or rejects what the reporter or anyone else has to say.

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 276 In fact, the Faulknerian text, denies that it possesses authority to guide readers toward any real truth. The text refuses to become a master narrative controlling the local narratives created by multiple voices within it and by multiple readers of it. In other words, in Faulkner's text, narration becomes heterodox. Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkner's fullest use of this postmodern narrative technique i.e. heterodoxy and multiple story telling that denies the authority of its own narrators and finally of itself. Faulkner, in his fiction, challenges the master narrative of family and community life and makes a case for heterodox local narratives of family and community. This heterodoxy rooted in postmodernism helps the readers to see how Faulkner's fiction values human multiplicity and criticizes authority in almost every sphere, whether religious, social, economic or political. If language cannot represent the real, if final truths are therefore unreachable, and if heterodoxy is therefore superior to orthodoxy enforced by authority and hierarchy, it follows that all

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 277 barriers and boundaries that attempt to define and divide and arrange ideas and human beings are suspicious at the idea and its seeking dominance. To the postmodern mind, if becomes almost obligatory therefore to transgress boundaries, whether physical, geographical, legal, cultural or intellectual. Postmodernism finds its heroes not in the individual who embodies cultural values but in the one who challenge them, moving through barriers, breaking laws, violating taboos,representing all illusory but transgressible barriers between the self and the other. Applying this point to Faulkner, it would be argued that earlier conception of language presumed a barrier between the "signifier and signified, while in Faulkner's fiction, Faulkner anticipates postmodernism in probing the boundaries between the words used by human beings (the signifiers) and the world those words attempt to capture (the signified), making readers aware, that the two, do not exist apart but, come together and all representation of objective world are subjective. Transgressed boundaries and postmodern instability can be considered at the heart of Faulkner's portrayal of

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 278 the south. He senses in that portrayal a south whose geographic and cultural boundaries were violated in the civil war and whose racial boundaries are all doomed. In fact, all barriers disappear, geographic and temporal. And two worlds, the fictional and the historical, become one world. However, although Faulkner recognizes the value of transgression, he does not celebrate it as a universal good as postmodernism does. Perhaps he sees how contradictory such a universalism is, since postmodernism celebrates transgression precisely because it rejects universalism. But Faulkner sees transgression and stability as equal goods, both necessary for individual and social life. To postmodernists, individual selfhood is an illusion. They insist that there is no individual essence because selves as possessors of real and identifiable characteristics, such as rationality, emotion, inspiration and will, are dismantled. In addition, by analyzing structurally and thematically of Faulkner's novels, the traces of Lyotard's theory of "rejection of meta narrative (grand narrative)", can be obviously seen in his novels.

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 279 Broadly, in respect to postmodern tendencies in Faulkner's novels, it can be said that: His postmodern attitude towards "Truth" in his novels makes his aesthetic philosophy close to postmodern' ideas of multiplicity of truth. By analyzing structurally and thematically of his novels, the traces of Lyotard 'theory of "rejection of metanarrative (grand narrative)", can be obviously seen in his novels. The shift from the Hussler's theory of "Free Variation- Essential Seeing " As a modernist idea to the postmodern concept of "unfmalizing", "uncertainty" and "multiplicity of truth", as it is exemplified in previous chapter, lead us to understand his works as a shift from modernist epistemology ( problems of knowing )to the postmodern emphasis on ontology( problems of modes of being). In other words, Faulkner's novel crosses the boundary between modernist and postmodernist because it shifts its dominance from epistemology to ontology. In fact, the dominance of postmodernist fiction is ontological. Accordingly, postmodernist fiction deploys strategies which engage and foreground questions like: Which world is this? What is to be done in it? Which of my selves is to do it? Other typical postmodernist questions bear either on the ontology of the literary text

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 280 itself or on the ontology of the world which it projects, for instance, what is a world?; what kinds of world are there, how are they constituted, and how do they differ?; what happens when different kinds of world are placed in confrontation, or when boundaries between worlds are violated?; What is the mode of existence of a text, and what is the mode of existence of the world (or worlds) it projects?; How is a projected world structured? And so on. Therefore, Faulkner's writings exhibit both modernist and postmodern tendencies. It has be to pointed out that in each of his literary works Faulkner experiments with the forms or styles of these two literary movements. Faulkner's self-conscious concern with these forms and styles is a hallmark of modernism as well as explaining why his writings, viewed with Lyotard and Ihab Hassan's observation in mind, seems strikingly postmodern. The features of modernism and postmodernism in Faulkner's writing, as shown before, lead us to find the similarities and differences between modernism and postmodernism

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 281 According to the findings in previous chapters, it cab be said that there are several themes that are shared in postmodern analysis, which consolidate Lyotard's (1984) interpretation as follows: First, there is distrust in the concept of absolute and objective truth. 'Truth' is viewed as contextual, situational, and conditional (Biggs and Powell, 2001). Second, emphasis is placed on fragmentation rather than universalism, again pushing away from the general and encompassing towards the particular (Powell, 2001). Third, local power is preferred over the centralized power of the nation state, and the decentralization, or the process of democratization of power, is a pervasive theme of postmodern narratives (Mestrovic, 1994). Fourth, reality is simulated but is otherwise not a very meaningful concept; reality conceived as a general and universal truth is profoundly doubted (Foucault, 1977). Finally, diversity and difference is emphasized and valued above commonality based on homogeneity (Powell, 2001). Postmodern analysis of culture is no longer a fiinge perspective as it promotes

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 282 strategies of individualism and diversity. It is critical of strategies that devalue individuals because of any characteristic that control access to knowledge, and that assault identity (Biggs and Powell, 2001). It sees ethics as situational. While Modernists search for truth by detaching themselves from history and the popular culture. Postmodernists jump in and immerse themselves. For Modernists, truth is in the meta-narrative, the grand legend of certainty in an uncertain world. On the other hand, postmodernists find many truths by letting the influence of history and pop-culture have an effect on their art. The term truth is used here as truths (plural) because whereas a Modernist sees only one truth, a Postmodernist finds many traces of truth in numerous ideas. The Postmodernist does not dismiss ideas because they differ or contradict. Instead, the Postmodernist has the ability to look at ranges of ideas objectively. In addition, this research, accepts Ihab Hassan's definition of the postmodernism as posterior to, not after modernism, and it would be said that modernism does not suddenly cease so that postmodernism

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 283 may begin: they now coexist, in effect, postmodernism lies deeply within the body of modernism. In this sense, the difference between modernism and postmodernism is therefore best seen as a difference in mood or attitude, rather than a chronological difference, or a different set of aesthetic practices. Thus, postmodernism is a continuation of modem thinking in another mode. Postmodernism is a knowing modernism, a self-reflexive modernism. Postmodernism does what modernism does only in a celebratory rather than repenent way. Thus it can be said that postmodernism embraces these characteristics as a new form of social existence and behavior. As David Antin (1993) puts it, "From the modernism you choose you get the postmodernism you deserve."(p.86) Furthermore, Ihab Hassan writes, in "Toward a Concept of Postmodernism," that we can look at writers of the past and realize their postmodemity. His theory fits in with the idea that postmodernism is not a movement, but a trait that is exhibited by certain authors pushing the limits of their time.

Chapter Seven: Conclusion 284 Based on this theory, Postmodernism has opened up space for the prouferation of critical voices. Rather than searching for a univocal reading of a literary text an act championed by more than just the New Critics postmodernism insists that there can be no single reading of a work, only endless multiplicities. Since, through this research, the works of William Faulkner have been seen from various angles; modernism and postmodernism (It may be possible to see Faulkner's work from a romanticism or classicism angle too), as a result it can be said that initially, this study is in its nature a postmodern work. In fact, this is exactly postmodern.