William Faulkner: An Economy of Complex Words by Richard Godden

This book contends that Faulkner's prose reflects the trauma of the South after World War II: as its old forms of labor changed (and African Americans migrated north in increasing numbers) white Southerners came to realize that their identity depended on African American identity. Godden gives excellent close readings, although his argument is a bit more radical (and tenuous) than I would like.