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

towards the novel form instead of the short story. Styron was a promiscuous reader, and he read almost everything and everybody, but his favorites were Dickens, Melville, Flaubert and Faulkner, and he had not read any Henry James. He regarded Madame Bovary, Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn as the three colossal works of world literature (Writer's Workshop). In another interview conducted by Gavin Cologne-Brookes Styron asserts that Malraux, Orwell and Koestler dealt with issues similar to his, and he refutes his presumptuous opinion on Henry James assumed in the previous interview, and says: "your art will have some tiny but meaningful effect on this whole blindly mysterious process that we are all caught up in" (Cologne-Brookes 229). He also reveals that he does not care whether the literary work is postmodern, or not, the most important factor for him is to find some enjoyment in it, further on, when discussing John Barth's writing related to postmodernism he pronounces: "John Barth, to my mind, is a totally self-preoccupied writer, to the extent that he virtually lacks any interest for me" (Cologne-Brookes 214). He admits that reading Kierkegard's, Camus' and Sartre's works contributed to shaping his existentialist views that provided a philosophical background to his novels. So the question still remains: what is William Styron's place in contemporary fiction? What are those shades on the palette of contemporary American literature that show Styron's uniqueness? The long list of appreciation and Styron's remarks about his own art, and his comments on the influence of other authors and philosophers on him show compellingly how complex the question is and how difficult it is to esteem the writer's oeuvre. To find an answer to this question is even more complicated in the case of a contemporary writer, because it is always easier to judge an author in retrospect. The Styron oeuvre is still open, as for decades he has been working on a novel entitled The Way of the Warrior, which he started before Sophie's Choice and has not finished yet. I cannot consider the opinion of posterity which usually boils down to throwing some authors into the box of the mainstream of literature by labeling them as 'major writers', and leaving some others on the shelf by attaching the label of 'minor writers' to them. I am convinced that the Southern background in Styron's works is not negligible. I do 15