Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2001. [Vol. 7.] Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 27)
Studies - László Dányi: The Eccentric Against the Mainstream: William Styron, 75
the novel sweeps us into the self-destruction of Sophie and Nathan, and leaves Stingo alive with the burden of the two characters' suicide. The reminiscences of Styron's past experiences sound in A Tidewater Morning , (1993) which is a recollection of events in Paul Whitehurst's life during the Great Depression and World War 2. The three short stories set in Virginia's Tidewater country apotheosize the power of memory, and are haunted by the themes of race, death, authority and faith, and they recuperate the themes discussed in Styron's earlier works. Three other works must be mentioned as being parts of Styron's oeuvre. The first is the author's non-fiction prose, This Quiet Dust (1982), which is a collection of previously published essays encompassing Styron's moral engagement. The second work is a play entitled In the Clap Shack (1952), which places a young recruit in the wreched world of a Navy hospital; and Darkness Visible , which addresses the effects of depression. In interviews Styron speaks about a novel which he started writing before Sophie's Choice, and has not finished yet. The Way of the Warrior will intertwine two themes: the nascent fascism at a personal level, and the latent homosexuality in male individuals, and the dilemma of the novel will explore what happens when these two appear explicitly. These are the works that are considered by Styron's critics, whose pendulum is continuously swinging between the iconic and the iconoclastic elements of the literary work when appreciating the author's oeuvre. Consequently, some praise the iconic elements and marvel at the beauty how the work fits into traditional thematic patterns, or the mainstream of the mode of writing of the given age, whereas some others despise the literary work for the same reason. William Styron's critique is no exception to this rule. The writer could not escape being compared to his Southern literary predecessor, William Faulkner, who left a heavy burden behind to the forthcoming generations of authors, as it is impossible for a Southern writer to avoid being contrasted to the Faulknerian mode of writing which established the Southern Literary Renascence in the first half of the 20th century. In the summer of 1995, while on a study tour in the United States I conducted a conversation with Thomas Inge, the well-
