Fractured Consciousness and the Persistence of Modernism in William Faulkner

This critical essay reconsiders the persistence of modernism through William Faulkner’s treatment of fractured consciousness and myth. Rather than approaching modernism as a historical style or a repertoire of narrative techniques, the essay argues for its continuity as an epistemological and ethical problem centered on the responsibility of consciousness.Focusing on Sanctuary, Requiem for a Nun, and The Reivers, the essay traces three configurations of fracture in Faulkner’s work: the collapse of myth under the pressure of violence, the emergence of responsibility without redemption, and the late internalization of modernist fracture beneath an apparent narrative linearity. Through these readings, Faulkner emerges not as a writer “after” modernism, but as one who brings its central problem—the generation of meaning from fractured consciousness—to its most rigorous articulation.Written for readers interested in modernism, literary theory, and narrative ethics, this essay is conceived as a concise but rigorous critical intervention. It does not offer an introduction to Faulkner or a survey of modernism, but advances a focused theoretical position on consciousness, myth, and the limits of catharsis in twentieth-century narrative.