On Faulkner’s Influence On Llsoa’s Artistic Techniques

Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel is quite outstanding in terms of artistic techniques, which is one of the reasons why he becomes a world-renowned writer. However, his artistic techniques are not innate but influenced by many writers, especially novelist in the modernism and post-modernism. The most influential one is William Faulkner, an American writer. By adopting relevant theories from influence study and parallel study, the paper demonstrates and studies Faulkner’s influence on Llosa in terms of methods and contents of artistic techniques through comparative analysis, demonstration method and close reading. It is concluded that Llosa’s such artistic techniques as spatial structure, hidden material are quite influenced by Faulkner.Faulkner influences Llosa’s artistic techniques by two aspects:reading and the experience in Europe. There was special bond between Llosa and reading since his boyhood. In his own words, reading " is like sunshine lighting up my youth time" Llosa read Faulkner’s works for the first time when he was in college. The artistic techniques in Faulkner’s novels left a great impression on Llosa. The time when Llosa travelled and studied in Europe was the prevailing period of modernism and post-modernism in Western literature, since when Llosa began to study novel artistic techniques. Llosa’s profound research on Faulkner’s novels laid a solid foundation for his proficient use of any artistic techniques.Llosa admitted by himself that the technique in novel structure comes directly from Faulkner, which is also proved in this paper by comparing Llosa and Faulkner’s novels. Multi-perspective narration is used in their works, but Llosa uses this technique more proficiently, bravely and frequently than Faulkner. What’s more, there is great similarities in the spatial structure of their works, especially in terms of time management skills, Montage space-time structure, and Connecting-technique. These techniques are also proved to be influenced by Faulkner. By making full use of spatial structure in expressing novel theme and content, Llosa uses the technique of novel spatial structure more proficiently than Faulkner and the overall structure is also bigger. However, it should be noted that nothing can be done without Faulkner’s contribution as " pioneer "Another artistic technique Llosa often uses is hidden materials. It includes plot omission and metaphor, which are also inherited from Faulkner. The technique of plot omission can be traced back to Temple by Faulkner, while the technique of metaphor is more influenced by Hemingway. Llosa made a scientific research on Hemingway’s work specially for improving his artistic techniques.Although Faulkner’s influence on Llosa is obvious and profound, it should be noted that Llosa made development and innovation in writing based on Faulkner’s novels. This is the difference between Llosa and Faulkner, which is also Llosa’s value in literature field.Obviously, the influence on Llosa’s novel writing is not only from Faulkner but a group of writers, like Hemingway, Sartre, and Hugo. Llosa’s success is based on the works of many great writers. However, it is no doubt that the Faulkner’s influence on Llosa’s artistic techniques is unique.