Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha
July 20-24, 2003

     The heart of ecology is relationship: at the fullest and most complex level, the relations between human beings and the entire array of their physical and social environments. Much of our attention to Faulkner’s fiction has been, not surprisingly, on the individual. His work is filled with memorable characters, many of whom are memorable precisely because of their uniqueness, often their isolation, within the community. Now, as our concern with ecology grows, our recognition that in many ways the determination of the quality of our lives lies in how we relate to each other and to the world at large, we begin to see how Faulkner’s work, his Yoknapatawpha world, is about relationship: How his distinct communities, black and white, town and country, native and foreign, relate to each other. How characters necessarily encounter natural and built environments that always precede them, structuring their actions. How person and place become virtually a single, inseparable unit of being.  
     Some of the topics of "Faulkner and the Ecology of the South" that will be taken up by nine lecturers and six panelists will be the significance of the highly varied places of Absalom, Absalom!, the representation of labor in The Hamlet, comparison of the representations of Yoknapatawpha and Lafayette County in Faulkner’s novels and John McCrady’s paintings, Faulkner’s Native Americans and the plantation economy.  
   In addition to the formal lectures and panel discussions, Tom Franklin will give a reading from his new novel Hell at the Breech. There will also be sessions on Teaching Faulkner, tours of North Mississippi, announcement of the winner of the 14th Faux Faulkner Contest, readings from Faulkner, and an assortment of social gatherings, including a buffet supper at historic Isom Place, a picnic at Rowan Oak, and a closing party at Square Books.  
     For more information about the conference, contact the Office of Professional Development and Non-Credit Education, Post Office Box 879, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-0879; telephone 662-915-7283; fax 662-915-5138; e-mail noncred@olemiss.edu; www.outreach.olemiss.edu or www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/faulkner/index.htm.   
     For information about participating in the conference through Elderhostel, call 877-426-8056 and refer to the program number 5760, or contact Carolyn Vance Smith by telephone (601-446-1208) or e-mail (carolyn.smith@colin.edu).

                                     DONALD M. KARTIGANER