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
Faulkner, and the Faulknerian heritage. In his form Styron goes back to Faulkner, because as I mentioned the modernist way of writing connects the two authors. Styron goes back to Faulkner in his rhetoric and style. The way he writes is also similar to Faulkner's in the way that he associates certain sensations with particular incidents. Images appealing to the senses —a smell, fragrance or vision or view —stir up memories and ignite the creation of the text. So in spite of Styron's indebtedness to the Faulknerian decorum of writing there are differences as well between the two: - the characters who inhabit the Styron novels are not only Southerners, or their background is not always Southern, they are not always linked to the South directly; - in Faulkner's writing aesthetic formalism is the artistic means through which regional and social issues are conveyed, on the other hand in Styron's writing regionalism gains a different meaning; - whereas in Faulkner's world the characters belong to dynasties and their lives can be traced for generations in the different novels, in Styron's novels the characters are not in a dynastic but in a familial relationship with each other; - in Faulkner's novels the characters are doomed to failure because they try to act against the indifferent forces of history which crumbles and crashes them and they do not have any power to influence the monstrous and hostile powers of history, in Styron's novels history appears to be an inherent part of the characters' individual and personal stories, it is recaptured as the collection of personal histories, and Styron's characters are doomed to fall due to the failure of their personal histories. They are dangling characters who try to find links to each other and to their universe and they are on the run for trying to find the points of contact which is in most cases futile because of their tormented souls. However, Styron cannot fully escape from the image of the impersonal history, because in SC the military machine of Nazi Germany represents history but Styron realizes that the agents of that 'perfect' society are individuals. - Faulkner created his imaginary Yoknapatawpha County and inhabited it with his own characters. Styron's regionalism is different from Faulkner's. His land is the Virginia Tidewater area. 17
