![]() ![]() ![]() Composed of multiple voices in the “stream-of-consciousness” narrative mode, The Sound and the Fury’s “parallactic” narrative structure suggests a context of psychosis in which the deeply retarded Benjy Compson’s unintelligible howl functions as a symptom – or rather, I will argue, as a sinthome – a word-concept from the later Lacan which I employ here to refer to that which organizes the excess of textual jouissance in the absence of a unifying, authoritative narrator. Psychoanalytically, the absence of a reliable narrator creates a discursive space devoid of authority, not unlike the psychotic’s reality. Instead, the composition of their experiences is held together by something else – a symptom. Faulkner effectively evacuates the authoritative narrator who may mediate, and re-envision the Compsons’ experiences from a privileged position. This article employs Jacques Lacan’s concept of the sinthome to discuss the consequences of William Faulkner’s experimental employment of the stream-of-consciousness narrative mode in writing The Sound and the Fury. ![]()
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