This program examines the work of William Faulkner, who created a gallery of vivid and unforgettable characters in his portrayal of the southern social aftermath of the Civil War. Most of his novels were set in the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, where he created a complex social structure from which he explored the southern past, race relations and the alienation felt by his contemporaries in such a volatile society. Faulkner's popular success came with Sanctuary in 1931, and he became known for the melodramatic violence in his writing and for exposing the tragic aspects of southern history.