Conference shrinks Faulkner, down to size

The sun was kinder and gentler this year at the outdoor ceremonies on the opening day of the 18th Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference Sunday. Last year, the sun was mean and rough, extending hot menacing arms from the heavens, grabbing conference attendees and squeezing every drop of moisture out of them.

But this year, the sun was forgiving, hiding behind friendly clouds, peeking and dripping snippets of caressing sunbeams through the leave-thick and whimsical trees of Rowan Oak, the Faulkner home which has been restored as a museum in honor of the Nobel Prize-winning writer.

Over 50 people gathered there Sunday evening, sitting on metal folding chairs or standing in the shadows, laughing in response to a reading by the winner of the Faulkner Write-Alike Contest.

After the ceremony, they streamed down the tree-lined pathway leading to and from Rowan Oak. Each of their footsteps crunched onto the light-brown pebbles on the walkway. They walked across the street to a buffet supper and reception at the Howorth Home.

The sun remained on good behavior, shyly dancing to the brass band jazz sounds among the long white tablecloth-covered tables in the Howorth's park-like front yard.

This year's conference, which continues through Friday, deals with the theme "Faulkner and Psychology" and is also the first occasion for which one of Faulkner's novels was produced as an opera.

The New England Concert Opera Ensemble, consisting of six musicians and five singers, performed a composer's workshop of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."

The production was not fully staged: no scenery, no props, no major movements by the performers, and no string instruments in the ensemble.

The music, composed especially for the production was strange. It often sounded as though one or two of the horns or woodwinds played the wrong notes. When it sounded on key, some of the musicians played too loudly and overpowered the soft-sung singers.

Yet, when all the instruments sounded well-tuned and perfectly complimentary, it was difficult to understand some of the singers.

Nevertheless, the opera was an interesting and important addition to this year's conference. It introduced Faulkner's word craftsmanship to music and made him a little bit more understandable—but not much.

We also think that among the exceptional Faulkner scholars presenting information at the conference is Dr. Lee Jenkins.

Jenkins is associate professor of English in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York and is a psychoanalyst in private practice. He joins today's panel on "Psychological Approaches to Faulkner," and he lectures tomorrow on "Psychological Conceptualizations of Characterization in Faulkner."

Jenkins' 1981 book, Psychological Conceptualizations in Faulkner, deals in part with Faulkner's dealings with black characters in his works. Faulkner was not much different from most people. Everybody unconsciously projects his own fears of inadequacy onto others, Jenkins said.

Faulkner feared that he was intellectually inadequate, among other fears. He could not overcome his fears and subconsciously projected his perceived intellectual inadequacy into his characters. Faulkner created the mixed-race character Joe Christmas in Light in August and gave the character negative characteristics, representing Faulkner's own self-hatred and fears.

Faulkner subconsciously tried to purify himself by assigning Joe Christmas negative characteristics, by low-rating him in other words. Jenkins found that Faulkner's black characters were particularly representative of the writer's own fears. While Faulkner was a great writer, he was just like everybody else; he unconsciously projected his own fears onto others.