What is mythic method? How
does Faulkner use this method in The Sound and the Fury?
The “Mythic Method” is not
anything new. It has existed since long in the realm of fiction writing. Myths
are folk beliefs rooted deep in our mind. Men are by nature imaginative as well
as inventive. The aim of mythology is always to stabilize. It exists in order
to keep the future just like the past, or as near like it as can be managed.
Such an assertion, however, loses track of the counter-ability of mythology to
enable people to explore and deal with new experience.
Faulkner has a couple of
novels to his credit. In most famous among them we find his treatment of myths.
He has created a new territory which he has peopled in the light of his own
perception. Although this territory is there, he presents it as if it were
somewhere far from us. He has given it a new name. Says a critic, the myth in
the novel presents, its “true story”, is not teleologically rendered, but open
ended, making room for the next generation, opening out to new relations including
that between character and readers.
A study of The Sound and
The Fury shows Faulkner’s attempt to mythologize the Southern part of America Wessex England
It is not the travesty of
truth or falsification by any reckoning. An expression of Faulkner’s creative
impulse is evident here. By using imaginary name- Yoknapatawpha, for example-
for an actual territory and an actual town, Faulkner has created his own
mythology.
