Faulkner's Wife was Really Helpful

The prompt from the King Lear essay about titles and their relationship to the story got me thinking about A Light in August.  I did a little searching and found out some interesting stuff.  So the most obvious reason for the title is the light that lights up Mississippi in August.  One article said that the light spoken of seems to be coming from the past.  Maybe if that's true then it is hinting at all of the character's back stories coming into play later on in their life like Hightower.  It also said that Faulkner's wife gave him the idea.  He was originaly going to call it Dark House, but one day his wife was talking about the pretty light in August and he wrote down the name immediately.  Even more interesting, though, was the other meaning for light.  Apparently, at the time the novel was written, the word "light" was  slang for pregnant.  Faulkner could quite literally have been referring to Lena's pregnancy in the month of August.  There's a lot of interesting stuff out there on the title, pretty cool.

Comments

[Eric R]

I agree - titles are always a fun way to learn more about an author and his/her book. My initial impression of the title was that some culture, institution, person was fading, like summer fades into fall during August, but there was still hope, i.e., light. Thanks for doing that bit of research!

[becca spira]

Hey Josie,
Really cool post. I also happened to do a bit of research, and apparantly one of Faulkner's ladyfriends as a youth cheated on him and dated other men. This may have been an influence for Hightower's wife. Cool Thoughts!

[Christy J.]

Cool post...all that stuff about background info and motivation behind the title is really interesting.

However, the thing I found most intriguing is the fact that Faulkner was about to name the novel "Dark House." Why would he have called it that? It seems a little morbid for the book. What would it be referring to?