The Sources of Faulkner’s Humanism

Abstract

William Faulkner was one of the most internationally influential writers in the 20th century. He enjoyed a high reputation of “American Shakespeare”, and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949 by in virtue of his great literary achievements. His works are rich and broad, covering the fields of society, culture and history in American South. What runs through his works is his deep humanistic concern with man’s, especially women’s existence and fate. The sources of his humanistic spirit derive from the following three aspects: the tradition of Puritanism, humanitarianism and existentialism.