Narrative Order in William Faulkner

Abstract: Faulkner scholars have assembled chronologies for several of his novels and short stories as guides for readers attempting to untangle their frequently convoluted temporal structures. The data underlying those chronologies may be repurposed to produce “time maps,” graphs that chart the disparity between the order of events as they occurred in the fictional world (story order) and the order in which they are related in the narrative discourse (text order). These maps reveal a distinctive series of recurring patterns in Faulkner’s handling of narrative order, allow for comparisons of Faulkner’s characteristic techniques with those of other authors, and suggest that this methodology could be extended to provide time maps for his entire Yoknapatawpha corpus.