Yoknapatawpha is the land where William Faulkner sets his stories, it is located in Southern USA, and it is inspired by Lafayette County in Mississippi. Its name derived from two Chickasaw words, Yocona and petopha, which mean "split land". Faulkner's stories are about some families such as the Sartoris, the Greniers, the Bundrens, and the Snopes among others, just as in Cien años de soledad are the Buendías.
I really enjoy the fact that Faulkner had created this county to set his stories, he made a ficticious representation of his surroundings, the people, the relationships they had, etc. He placed it in somewhere he gave it a Chicasaw name, meaning that he has not forgotten its aboriginal roots.
From my point of view, the reason why he had created this land is because he wanted to unify everything in only one place, reflect situations that happened in different counties, to select relevant information from each one and gather all of them in only one.
Finally, I would like to say that I really enjoy reading Faulkner's stories, I like the turn of events that he gave them, the representation of the society and how it reflect his own society. Even though it was a little difficult to read it was a great time reading them.
Do you know any other author that had used this technique to write?
Your entry was really great. I am glad to know that the concept of Yoktapatawpha also caught your attention.
ResponderEliminarIt is a really different style, but I believe C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia also use intratextuality in a similar way we saw it in Faulkner's stories.
It is simply great to see how some characters appear again, and the incluence a story has in another one. I really liked how Coloner Sartoris was a young boy struggling to define his own ethos in Barn Burning, but then he was a former major in A Rose for Emily.
All in all, even though other authors have also used intratextuality, Faulkner is the first case I have personally seen of using it in short stories instead of in long book sagas.
Again, it was a really great post :)
I haven't thought about Narnia, and now that you mention it, I think that maybe Lewis Carroll's Wonderland could be an example too, and even Tolkien's Middle Earth, but those are "fantastic" places while Macondo and Yoknapatawpha are "real" in the sense that nothing extraordinary happens there.
ResponderEliminarI agree with you in the fact that it is very intresting the way in which the characters re-appear in other stories.