ABSTRACT
WITHOUT MUCH ADO I wish to direct attention to the symbolic texture of Light in August. This texture is very much a matter of mechanics and dynamics-a poetry of physics. Repeatedly Faulkner presents appearance, event, and even character in the images of stasis, motion, velocity, weight, lightness, mass, line, relative position, circle, sphere, emptiness, fullness, light, and dark. The phrase 'light in August' has at least two meanings. As Mr. Malcolm Cowley informs us in his Portable Faulkner, the phrase means 'light' as opposed to 'heavy' and refers to a pregnant woman who will give birth in August. And it also means 'light' as opposed to 'dark'-an affirmation of life and human spirit. Light in August may be described, in Faulkner's own words (though he is describing something else),as 'the mechanics,the theatring of evil.' This is not a complete or fully fair description of Faulkner's novel, but it is complete and fair enough to demand that we look at the novel from this point of view-and that we finally ask, How successful is the author in extending his account of the mechanics and theatring of evil into an account of the human situation?
