In
Existential-Phenomenological Readings on Faulkner, the author’s complex characters and their motivations are interpreted in a novel, yet very credible way. In fact, the existential phenomenologists and Faulker were made for each other.
Believing, as Albert Einstein said, that “the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility,” existential phenomenologists succeed where other critics fail; they present a unified critical theory that incorporates all of Faulkner’s characters. Mythological, symbolical, Freudian, Jungian, religious, sociological, and formalist approaches may adequately attempt to explain one, or even several, of these characters, but neglect the others.
Making Faulkner and his characters accessible and understandable is no small task. William J. Sowder, with the help of existential-phenomenological philosophy, accomplishes this feat. The existential-phenomenologist, like Faulkner, attempts to close the gap between literature and life. Sowder succeeds in closing the gap between Faulkner and the reader.