Faulknerian

[fawk-neer-ee-uhn]

adjective

1. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or resembling the literary style of William Faulkner.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Faulknerian¹

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55; Faulkner + -ian

Example Sentences

Fred Chappell, a poet, novelist and critic whose Faulknerian capacity to express universal themes of love, loss and memory through his evocations of North Carolina’s rural, mountainous west earned him a reputation as the South’s “premier contemporary person of letters,” in the words of one reviewer, died on Jan. 4 in Greensboro, N.C.

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"The Orchard Keeper," "Outer Dark," and "Child of God" are grisly tales of Faulknerian rural horror that could have drawn a grimace from the Marquis de Sade.

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That Faulknerian chestnut about the not-even-pastness of the past has rarely been illustrated with such vivid intimacy.

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On Wednesday, the Booker judges pronounced Galgut the winner, praising his novel for its “unusual narrative style that balances Faulknerian exuberance with Nabokovian precision, pushes boundaries, and is a testament to the flourishing of the novel in the 21st century.”

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The brilliant concept was to use the two stories to inform each other, letting the Faulknerian past that is “not even past” intrude upon the present.

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