SOURCE: "Cleanth Brooks on Faulkner: Yoknapatawpha and the Vanderbilt Tradition," in The Vanderbilt Tradition: Essays in Honor of Thomas Daniel Young, edited by Mark Royden Winchell, Louisiana State University Press, 1991, pp. 189-96.

[An educator and critic, Andrews frequently writes about William Faulkner. In the essay below, she analyzes Brooks's studies of Faulkner.]

Cleanth Brooks writes with an authority not easily matched in Faulkner criticism. His firsthand experience of southern culture, his comprehensive knowledge of literary tradition, and his clear sense of humanity enable him to cut through the absurdities and extravagances of much writing about Faulkner. Yet this very authority can pose a problem for the reader trying to understand the complexities of Faulkner's fiction; it can be difficult to separate Brooks's own critical precepts from the fictional world he makes so accessible to the reader. The New Criticism, which Brooks inherited from the Fugitives and developed into...