Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-252) and index.

"Blair Labatt argues that Faulkner's fiction, regardless of its modernist gestures, is filled with and driven by sophisticated manifestations of plot - willed challenges, structural targets, gambits, designs, engagements, and battles - a language of competition and conflict and a syntax of events." "Labatt examines Faulkner's short stories, such as "Mountain Victory," "That Evening Sun," and "Barn Burning," and the architecture of the Snopes Trilogy (The Hamlet, The Town, and The Mansion), and finds that Faulkner's deployment of cause and effect is central to his narratives. Labatt also explores how Faulkner's use of plot creates an implied voice that lends a humorous element to the twists and turns of his stories that often brackets and encloses the pathos of his characters."--Jacket.

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