Some of the stories in Digital Yoknapatawpha have audio recordings attached to them.
If this is the case, a link will appear at the bottom left of the display controls.
Clicking on the link will open up a new browser tab with a set of audio recordings
attached to that particular story.
These files come from a much larger audio archive curated by Steve Railton,
called Faulkner at Virginia,
and are digital versions of tape recordings that were made of Faulkner’s lectures
while he was a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia in 1957 and 1958.
Generally, the title of each link is a paraphrase of a question asked by an audience member,
and the audio recording is the original question accompanied by Faulkner’s answer.
Clicking on the link brings up the audio player and a transcription of the exchange.
Once the audio player is visible,
the audio file can also be downloaded by clicking the menu ellipsis on the right.
The recordings are as profound as they are funny.
They sometimes add a level of depth to a story,
while at other times it seems that Faulkner’s responses raise more questions than they answer.
In all cases, they are worth a listen.
With a “Rose for Emily,” it is interesting to listen to Faulkner’s answer to the question,
“Conflict between North and South in the Story?”
Faulkner claims that any symbolism related to the North and South is "incidental,"
and that, instead, the writer is trying to create an “authentic, credible flesh-and-blood character."
The response is surprising.
It suggests that the object of writing for Faulkner is not to deliver a “message,”
but, rather, to tell stories about people.
One may wonder how we reconcile Faulkner’s own version of this story,
with readings of “A Rose for Emily” that tend to see it as a commentary on the treatment of
women during the period immediately following the Civil War.
Is this a story about one woman, or is this a story about women more generally?
These recordings represent just a sliver of the 28 hours of audio available on the Faulkner at Virginia website.
Clicking on the link will bring you to main site,
where you can get more detailed information on these recordings,
browse all of the individual recordings,
search for a specific word in the recordings,
or go through all the highlights in the archive.
The archive also includes recordings of him reading from his work out loud,
all of which are an invaluable guide to understanding the poetry of his language.