| Abstract | William Faulkner and Stephen King write about different subject matter, but their lives and methodologies are incredibly similar. Through the use of stream-of-consciousness narrative, they show the motivation and inner machinations of their characters. Providing a recursive location, whether it's Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi or King's Derry/Castle Rock/Jerusalem's Lot triad in Maine, informs an author's work with a greater depth. And reappearing characters act as a literary "bookmark" for readers, giving them an overarching narrative through which they are able to see greater themes in the canon. Finally, the authors' respective views of childhood and development, repeated character archetypes, and utilization of persecuted minorities reveal significant affinities in their novels and short stories. Through these devices, Faulkner and King mirror the sociopolitical and psychological landscape of America within the respective eras in which each author lived through their work. They show readers the monsters of society--both fictional and not so fictional--in order to give them a common moral counterweight; pitting their morally grey characters against these manifestations of pure evil allows them to literarily recreate an allegorical America. |
