I started with the actual Faulkner books I like Go Down, Moses and Light in August with my new thesis to defend. I'm not through with Light in August yet and I already have 3954 words. I haven't written an introduction, conclusion, or explained how the examples I culled from Faulkner can help the South reconcile its history, while aiming for 7500 total words. I think this is doable for the first draft, since I will probably have to add in secondary sources.
This leaves me with what to do with Flags in the Dust, the Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary, and Absalom, Absalom!. I already culled As I Lay Dying for not matching my thesis. So based on word count, I shouldn't worry about the rest of the books. The problem is I really don't want to bother with them because I don't like them. Everyone studies the Sound and the Fury and practically forgets the man wrote other books. The other three are filled with characters I have precious little empathy for, and I can see myself pulling my hair out trying to support my thesis with them because of the dislike. So I'm not stressing about them right now. First Draft will only cover Light in August and Go Down, Moses.
Do I expect my professor to tell me I have to add them back in? Pretty much. Absalom, Absalom! won't be that hard to shoe-horn in with the thesis and the biracial issues. Flags in the Dust obsession with the past doesn't use the sexual connotation the same way the later books do. And I'm not sure my reading of the incest angle in Sanctuary reflects on personal and societal history.
That's what September is for, I guess. :D
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