Although Digital Yoknapatawpha excels
at the kind of detailed work that we've
seen through the map features, the "Narrative Analysis"
feature, and the various "Search" functions,
it does not short you on cultural context.
If we click under the "Visualizations" tab,
to "Photographs," you'll find hundreds
of photographs that have been collected that represent
the rural early-modern Mississippi
world, like the one that Faulkner represents
in his fiction.
Although we do not, of course, have pictures
of the actual Bundren house, you can see houses and cotton
fields, workers and farm implements
that can help you understand the world from which Faulkner drew
when crafting his fictions.
There are links, too, on the As I Lay Dying map page,
to audio clips in which Faulkner proclaims
his delight at the ease with which he
was able to write this novel.
A closer look at the manuscript pages,
by way of a link next to that one, can help you determine,
was As I Lay Dying really written in six weeks,
as Faulkner claims?
Materials like these can help you better
understand what Faulkner means when he calls this work a "tour
de force."
Lastly, you might consider building your interpretation
of the novel from Addie Bundren's final resting place
in the Jefferson Cemetery.
Under "Commentaries" you'll see a tab
for "The Cemeteries of Yoknapatawpha County."
Selecting As I Lay Dying from the list below,
as you did on the main Digital Yoknapatawpha page,
will highlight the two cemeteries
that Faulkner planted in his fictional world that
are relevant in this novel, although you can also
see many of the others that appear in different fictions.
But here you'll see the "New Hope Church Cemetery"
that Addie was expected to be buried in, close to home,
but also, of course, the "Jefferson Cemetery" where
Addie is buried.
In addition to connecting Addie to her family, all the family
members who are dead, of course, before she marries Anse
Bundren, this cemetery is one of the strongest links
between As I Lay Dying and the other texts in Faulkner's
oeuvre.
Clicking on this location in the cemeteries section
allows you to see all the other Faulkner characters who
are buried here, in this cemetery, in various fictions,
and the other texts in which this cemetery appears.
You can also explore the larger role of cemeteries
in the accompanying essay on this page.