William Faulkner
American · 20th century
American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate, known for works set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County including The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry references Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily' as a thematic parallel to the line 'The idea you had of me, who was she?', both works explore the unknowability of another person's inner life and the gap between how someone appears and what they truly feel.
Notable Works
- A Rose for Emily, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom Absalom!
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
A Rose for Emily
Uncle Jerry draws a parallel between the song's treatment of Rebekah Harkness and Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily,' in which Emily lives a secluded life in her own house and the townspeople speculate endlessly about what goes on inside without ever knowing her. Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the same dynamic of external judgment and ignorance of the actual person operates in both works, the town doesn't know Rebecca Harkness just as the town doesn't know Emily.
A Rose for Emily
“The idea you had of me, who was she?”
Uncle Jerry references William Faulkner's short story 'A Rose for Emily' when discussing the lyric 'The idea you had of me, who was she?' He summarizes the story, Emily falls in love with a man who leaves, she never marries, and after her death they find the dead man in her bed, to illustrate the theme that you never truly know what another person is thinking or feeling. He draws the parallel to the unknowability of Jake Gyllenhaal's true feelings and intentions toward Taylor.