"Cockroach must never get into fowl business." - Caribbean (and elsewhere) saying.

title

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the
last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to
dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more;

it is a tale told by an idiot, full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing." -
William Shakespeare

¦

The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
¦

Sujet d'agreg interne 2003

Composition en langue étrangère, durée 7 heures :

Loss and wonder in The Sound and the Fury.

mail > Pour ce qui est du devoir sur Faulkner, j'ai eu un cours aujourd'hui et les deux candidats à l'interne présents ont dit leur sujet à la prof (qui l'ignorait...strange) et elle a été très surprise de ce "wonder" et elle a approuvé les propositions de ces deux candidats en disant à chaque fois "oui, ca aussi ca pouvait aller"! Sans doute pour ne pas ajouter du stress. Je vois bien la prof leur dire "non, non, ca c'est un hors-sujet total"! En gros, et comme tout le monde a dû bien le sentir, c'est sur "wonder" qu'était le piège, car la perte est au coeur du livre...

AS THE ORALS DRAW NEARER...

In my very humble opinion, the best resource you can get about TSATF is a Foliothèque book by François Pitavy - cheap (about 7 euros), very clear, and you can find it almost anywhere as it is published in France.

The only drawback, is... it's written in French.

But if you add the notes and critical appareil from the Norton edition, you should need nothing else.

Especially at this time of year... as the exam is getting close.

As the teachers at univ. Tours univ put it, the members of the jury do not expect to find specialists among the candidates.

Only people with a clear mind, a decent knowledge of the program and some ability to express ideas and argue... in English of course.

And don't forget, half the written agreg interne test relies upon translation, if you see what I mean...

- F. Bri, admissible agr'int.

DISSERTATION : la composition en langue étrangère.


POTHIER'S WHEEL: "Dire le Sud"

* Suds d'Amériques - communautés, marges, territoires...


TS&TF'S SOUTHERN IDIOLECT

    • Some words in the Southern vernacular which are unclear for French readers (I wish my lecturer had given us more!):

p1 "ahun" for "iron"
p2 "nome" for "no ma'am"
p4 "rinktum" for "rectum/ass"
p6 "clare" for "I declare"

There's more in this
Sound and Fury glossary

to quote just a few:

Adulant. Excessively worshipful (Faulkner's own back-formation from adulation and adulate).

Agnes-Mabel-Becky. A popular brand of condoms in the 1920s. The round tin package was the size and color of a silver dollar. Faulkner doubtless chose the brand because the package resembles the coin Luster is trying to find.

Ahun. Dialect for iron, from Versh's remark about Benjy's hands getting cold on the iron gate to the Comp-son yard as he waits for Caddy.

Aihy. Dialect for "ere a", itself a dialect term for "any".

Annealment. A Faulknerian neologism, from the verb anneal (to heat and then cool a substance such as steel or glass to make it less brittle). Dilsey, deeply moved by the Easter service in the fourth section of the novel, is "crying quietly in the annealment and blood of the remembered Lamb", a context that suggests the tempering as well as the healing of her spirit.

Anticked. A verb meaning "capered," made as a back-formation from the noun antic.

Breddren. Dialect for brothers.

cont'd here

    • The word 'nigger' - a key term in American culture, a profoundly hurtful racial slur...


CHARACTER LIST

Beard:The owner of the lot in Jefferson where the carnival was held.


QUOTES AND KEY WORDS

the edition used is Vintage International, so the pages may not correspond to yours. Hope it helps. - Jo.

NDWM : Le B.O. recommende la "Norton Critical Edition".

XX = repetitions

1 - First and last lines

Section 1 : April Seventh, 1928

Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. (red. p. 51)

Section 4 : April Eighth, 1928

The broken flower drooped over Benâs fist and his eyes were empty and blue and serene again as cornice and fa?ade flowed smoothly once more from left to right, post and tree, window and doorway and signboard each in its ordered place.
New York, N.Y. October 1928.


2 - CADDY (smell, fall, sins, leader, names, orders, defies, love)

Caddy smelled like leaves (6)

She smelled like trees (9) (XXXp.72)

Then she didn't have on anything but her bodice and drawers, and Quentin slapped her and she slipped and fell down in the water (18)

Caddy was all wet and muddy behind (19)

I hope we do get whipped (19)

" When is the Lawd's own time, Dilsey. " Caddy said.

" It's Sunday. " Quentin said. " Dont you know anything. " (25)

We watched the muddy bottom of her drawers. Then we couldn't see her. (39)

Caddy put her arms around me, and her shining veil, and I couldn't smell trees anymore and I began to cry...

She put her arms around me again, but I went away...

She came again, but I went away. (41)

Caddy took the kitchen soap and washed her mouth at the sink, hard.

Caddy smelled like trees. (48)

His nameâs Benjy now, Caddy said. (58)

*section 2

She ran right out of the mirror (77)
She ran out of the mirror like a cloud (81)

She not only drags your name in the dirt but corrupts the very air your children breathe (104)

Dont let them send him to Jackson promise (112)
Dont touch me will you look after Benjy and Father (115)

When they touched me I died (149)
Her eyes like cornered rats (149)

3 - QUENTIN : Caddy's daughter (heritage Caddy and Quentin, fate, doing and undoing, reenactment)

Luster was playing in the dirt. T.P. put Quentin down and she played in the dirt too. (30)

*section 3

Her eyes looked like they were cornered or something (259)
" He is the nearest thing to a father you've ever had " (mother about Jason, 259)

" If I'm bad it's because I had to be. You made me. I wish I was dead. I wish we were all dead. "(260)

she has inherited all of the headstrong traits.

Quentin's too. I thought at the time, with the heritage she would already have, to give her that name, too.(260)

*section 4

" We sees her doing hit ev'y night," Luster said.

Clamb right down dat pear tree. (286)

The bitch that cost me a job, the one chance I ever had to get ahead, that killed my father and is shortening my motherâs life every day and made my name a laughing stock in the town.(304)

Together they merely symbolised the job in the bank of which he had been deprived before he ever got it.(306)


4 - BENJY (lunatic, animal, instinct, nature, senses, dismemberment, trying, speaking, selflessness)

Here's you a jimson weed (Luster, 6)
He came back with a single narcissus.( Luster,318)

We ran up the steps and out of the bright cold, into the dark cold.(7)
You mean, he been three years old thirty years (boy, 17)
"You say it (C's name) to him while he sleeping and I bet he hear you." (Dilsey, 31)

" He know lot more than folks thinks." Roskus said. (31)

(
sassprilluh) It makes me feel just like a squinch owl inside.(38)
my throat made a sound (40)

Charlie came and put his hands on Caddy and I cried more. I cried loud.(47)

'Come on here, mulehead.' (Luster,50)

I tried to say, but they went on, and I went along the fence, trying to say, and they went faster. (52)

I tried to stop...I was trying to say... trying to say... I was trying to say and trying... I tried to get it off of my face... I tried to cry... I tried to keep from falling off the hill....(53)

I looked at the fire but my hand didnât stop and I didnât stop. (59)

Versh smelled like rain. He smelled like a dog too. (68)

*section 2

Benjamin the child of mine old age held hostage into Egypt. (Q p.170)

*section 3


Six niggers to feed, knocking a dam oversize mothball around. (Jason speaking 187)

at least I could come home on time without finding Ben and that nigger hanging on the gate like a bear and a monkey in the same cage. (253)

heâd head for the gate like a cow for the barn (253)

watching the girls going home from school, trying to want something he couldnât even remember he didnât and couldnât want any longer. (253)

*section 4

Luster entered, followed by a big man who appeared to have been shaped of some substance whose particles would not or did not cohere to one another or to the frame which supported it. His skin was dead looking and hairless ; dropsical too, he moved with a shambling gait like a trained bear. His hair was pale and fine· his eyes were clear, of the pale sweet blue of cornflowers, his thick mouth hung open, drooling a little. (274)

But he bellowed slowly, abjectly, without tears ; the grave hopeless sound of all voiceless misery under the sun. (316)

There was more than astonishment in it, it was horror ; shock ; agony eyeless, tongueless ; just sound (320)


5 - JASON  (isolation, thrift, meanness, women, perversity, sadism, masochism, paranoia,other people's looks, sickness, race, sarcasm, black humour, voyeurism)

Jason was playing too. He was by himself further down the branch.(19)

Jason came behind us, with his hands in his pockets.(20)

" They wont know you got wet." Versh said. " It dont show on you. less me and Jason tells. " (19)

(the frog) still squatted there until Jason poked at it with his toe. "
Heâll make a wart on you. È Versh said. (22)

A snake crawled from under the house. Jason said he wasnât afraid of snakes and Caddy said he was but she wasn't... (37)

" You dirty little beast. " (Caddy said, 41)
" Iâm not going to mind you. " Jason said. (32)

He had his hands in his pockets and he fell down (23)

If you keep them hands on your pockets, you could stay on your feetÈ.Versh said. (23)

I dont need any man's help to get along I can stand on my own feet like I always have. (section 3, 206) (XX)

I can stand on my own feet. (211)

*section 3

Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say. (opening line 180)(XX)
If you cant think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw.(193)

I'm a man, I can stand it, it's my own flesh and blood and I'd like to see the color of the man's eyes that would speak disrespectful of any woman that was my friend (246)

"You wait until I get this belt out and Iâll show you, È· Ç Jason," she
says. "You, Jason ! Aint you shamed of yourself. "(185)XX)

I'm afraid all the time I'll run into them right in the middle of the street or under a wagon on the square, like a couple of dogs(240)

There was about a dozen people looking. It made me so mad for a minute it kind of blinded me. (188)

I'm not going to have any member of my family going on like a nigger wench. (189)

I told Dilsey she had leprosy and I got the Bible and read where a man's flesh rotted off and I told her that if she ever looked at her or Ben or Quentin they'd catch it too. (207)

"You's a cold man, Jason, if man you is, " she says.(207) well, like I say they never started soon enough with their cutting, and they quit too quick. (263)( about B's castration)

I haven't got much pride, I cant afford it with a kitchen full of niggers to feed and robbing the state asylum of its star freshman. (230)

if I married a wife she'd probably turn out to be a hophead or something.

That's all we lack in this family, I says. (247)

If I dont drink that's my business (233)

It felt like somebody was inside with a hammer, beating on it (about headache, 239)

"If it's not all right," I says, "you know what you can do about it"(XX) (to Earl, 245)

*section 4

He repeated his story, harshly recapitulant, seeming to get an actual pleasure out of his outrage and impotence (303)

And he drove on out of the bells and out of town, thinking of himself
slogging through the mud, hunting a team.(305)

He had been outwitted by a woman, a girl· by the very symbol of the job lost itself, and worst of all, by a bitch of a girl. (307)

The whole world would know that he, Jason Compson, had been robbed by Quentin, his niece, a bitch.(309)

" You her·brother ? " " No, " Jason said.(312)
you sure he didn't hit me ? No blood , I mean . "(312)


6 - FATHER (aphorisms, alcohol, decay and putrefaction)

"Bad health is the primary reason for all life. Created by disease, within putrefaction, into decay."(44)

Father took me up. He smelled like rain.(64)

*section 2

No battle is ever won (to Q. p.76)

He said men invented virginity not women (father p.78)

I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire (76)

You are confusing sin and morality (102)

Father said a man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day youâd think misfortune would get tired, but then time is your misfortune Father said.(104)

Women are never virgins. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. (116)

*section 3

I could see the bottom of his nightshirt and his bare legs and hear the decanter clinking until finally T.P. had to pour it for him (XX)(233)

Mother (rejection, distance, scorn, mortification, hypochondriac, preference)

All of our women have prided themselves on their carriage. Do you want to look like a washerwoman.(63)

I dont want him carried...No, no. Not in my lap. (63)

Your father insisted on calling you by that silly nickname... Nicknames are vulgar. Only common people use them. (64)

*section 2

Jason will make a splendid banker he is the only one with any practical sense you can thank me for that he takes after my people the others are all Compson (94)

You always have found excuses for your own blood only Jason can do wrong because he is more Bascomb than Compson (Father speaking p.103)

And then I'll be gone and Jason with no one to love him shield him from this (103)

let me have Jason and you keep the others theyâre not my flesh and blood like he is strangers nothing of mine and I am afraid of them (104)

if I'd just had a mother so I could say Mother Mother (Q 172)

*section 3

"We Bascomb need nobody's charity. Certainly not that of a fallen woman." (220)

They always looked on you and me as outsiders, like they did your Uncle Maury.(261)

I was raised to believe that people would deny themselves for their own flesh and blood. It's my fault.(262)

*section 4

" The darkies are having a special Easter service. (279)
" You never resurrected Christ, did you ? "(Jason speaking, 279)

I'm a lady. You might not believe that from my offspring, but I am."(300)


7 - QUENTIN COMPSON (incest, ambiguity, death, hell, time, virginity, race, liquids, dirt)

I said I have committed incest, Father I said.(77)

I have committed incest I said Father it was I it was not Dalton Ames (79)

Nobody else there but her and me (79)

Only you and me then amid the pointing and the horror walled by the clean flame (117)

Then why must you listen we can go away you and Benjy and me where nobody knows us where (124)

Running the beast with two backs and she blurred in the winking oars running the swine of Euboleus running coupled within how many Caddy (148)

it seemed to me that I could hear whispers secret urges smell the beating of hot blood under wild unsecret flesh watching against red eyelids the swine untethered in pairs rushing coupled into the sea (176)

Poor Quentin youve never done that have you (148)

You thought it was them but it was me I fooled you all the time it was me you thought (149)

But still I couldnât stop it (laughing) and then I knew that if I tried too hard to stop it Iâd be crying and I thought about how Iâd thought about I could not be a virgin (174)

Its my knife I dropped it (152)

she walked into me she gave over a little the ditch was a black scar on the gray grass she walked into me again she looked at me and gave over we reached the ditch(153)

Calling Shreve my husband (Spoade p.78)
I had just passed out like a girl (162)
I'm sorry I didn't bleed on him a little, at least (165)
I was I was not who was not was not who (170)

I used to think a Southerner had to be always conscious of niggers. (86)
The best way to take all people is to take them for what they think they are (86)
I realised that a nigger is not so much a person as a form of behavior ; a sort of obverse reflection of the white people he lives among. (86)

Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport ; he is a Kentuckian too. (91)

Bringing empty trunks down the attic stairs they sounded like coffins

French Lick. Found not death at the salt lick. (95)
I cant even cry I died last year (123)
I tricked into the water shall tread upon my impervious shadow. (96)
Trampling my shadowâs bones into the concrete with hard heels (96)
I walked upon the belly of my shadow (96)
Liquid putrefaction like drowned things floating like pale rubber flabbily filled getting the odor of honeysuckle all mixed up. (128)
I had to pant to get any air at all out of that thick gray honeysuckle (151)
Honeysuckle was the saddest odor of all, I think (169)

I didn't kiss a dirty girl like Natalie anyway (134)

We were dancing sitting down I bet Caddy cant dance sitting down (136)

"All the time we thought he was the model youth anybody could trust a daughter with, until the police showed him up at his nefarious work." (Spoade about Q)(146)

+ repetitions of "rain", "shadow", "honeysuckle", "gray"


8 - OTHER CHARACTERS

Herbert

Face full of teeth white but not smiling· all teeth but not smiling (Q p.93)

The littlle girl

A little dirty child with eyes like a toy bearâs and two patent-leather pigtails. (125)
· still and unwinking eyes like two currants floating motionless in a cup of weak coffee (125)
unwinking gaze (147)
Her fingers closed about them, damp and hot, like worms.(127)
" Come on, sister." (130)
"Nothing but a girl. Poor sister " (138)

Uncle Maury (alcohol, bug)

I may restore to its rightful position that family of which I have the honor to be the sole remaining male descendant (223)

The man with the red tie

What kind of a dam man would wear a red tie (XX)(234)

Dilsey (Calvary)

her myriad and sunken face lifted to the weather, and one gaunt hand flac-soled as the belly of a fish (265)
her fallen breasts (265)
She had been a big woman once but now her skeleton rose, draped loosely in unpadded skin (265)
The indomitable skeleton was left rising like a ruin or a landmark· and above that the collapsed face that gave the impression of the bones themselves being outside the flesh (266)
Presently she wa singing louder, as if her voice too had been thawed out by the growing warmth (270)

Luster

" Dese funny folks.Glad I aint none of em. "
" Lemme tell you somethin, nigger boy, you got jes es much Compson devilment in you es any of em. "(Dilsey speaking,276)

Rev'un Shegog

He sounded like a white man. His voice was level and cold.(293)
"I got the recollection and the blood of the Lamb ! " (294)
" I got de ricklickshun en de blood of de Lamb !" (295)


9 - MISCELLANOUS

bad luck

Taint no luck on this place, Roskus said. (29)
"They aint no luck going be on no place where one of they own chillenâs name aint never spoke." (Roskus, 31)
Folks dont have no luck, changing names. (Dilsey, 58)
Im bad anyway you cant help it theres a curse on us its not our fault (C to Q p.158)

Death and shadows

" ...when Nancy fell in the ditch and Roskus shot her and the buzzards came and undressed her. " (Caddy,33)
" Do you think buzzards are going to undress Damuddy. " Caddy said. (35)

Our shadows moved, but Danâs shadow didnât move except to howl when he did. (35)
The grass was buzzing in the moonlight where my shadow walked on the grass (46)
Our shadows were on the grass. They got to the trees before we did. Mine got there first. Then we got there, and then the shadows were gone. (54)
Our shadows were gone. (55)

*section 2

When the shadow of the sash appeared· (opening line of section 2)
The floating shadow of the veil running across the grass (81)


10 - KEY WORDS COMMON TO THE THREE BROTHERS

Desire and death, loss, identity, sexuality, incest, sex/filth, relation to the other (be it father, mother, woman, sister, negro.., disorder, quest, barriers and transgression, fragmentation, dis/order, water motif, voices, odours)


Special thanks to Jo and F.T.

more later -
send in your cool info



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