Faulkner Networked: Indigenous, Regional, Trans-Pacific

Nutt Auditorium

Beginning with the Nagano Seminar that Faulkner gave in post-war Japan, this paper discusses his regionalism as one strongly inflected by a sense of being on the losing side of history. Regionalism understood in this way not only comes with a distinctive Southern accent, it also serves as a spur, an outward momentum, a disposition to make common cause with other groups also on the losing side. Faulkner's networks are both indigenous and trans-Pacific for that reason: Native Americans as well as Japan after World War II carry a special emotional charge for him, a bond of kinship forged in humiliation and defeat.