A comparison of the themes of 'Absalom, Absalom!' and 'Light in August,' by William Faulkner with 'Beloved' and 'Jazz,' by Toni Morrison

This 57 page extended essay compares the themes of Absalom, Absalom! and Light in August, by William Faulkner, with Beloved and Jazz, by Toni Morrison.; These two authors, a white male writing early in the twentieth century, and a black female writing in the last decade of the century, examined a parallel experience and produced works remarkably similar in style, theme and characterization.; They both received the Nobel Prize for literature, in part for these works which delineate the relational nature of time and the role of the ever-present past in human interaction.; In these four novels, Faulkner and Morrison use themes from classical Greek tragedy. The community as chorus, the foredoomed protagonist who fights but ultimately fails, the presence of an invisible character flaw, an "Achilles heel" in the soul that forces a protagonist an an inevitably destructive course, all are present to some degree in these works.