SOUTHEAST PROFESSOR CO-EDITS FAULKNER MANUAL

When William Faulkner lived in Oxford, Miss., during the first half of the 20th century, writing books that won him the Nobel Prize and two Pulitzer prizes, the white supremacist Theodore Bilbo served two terms as governor of Mississippi and three times was elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.

Bilbo wrote the book "Take Your Choice: Separation or Mongrelization." Faulkner wrote the books "Light in August" and "Absalom, Absalom!" among a number of his writings that examined the relationship between blacks and whites and especially ideas about mixing the races.

Faulkner's views about integration can seem weak-kneed now, and his frequent use of the N-word offends 21st century ears. Professors and high school teachers who teach Faulkner often find themselves defending him to outraged students -- both black and white.

"It takes a very brave professor to teach Faulkner or Twain," says Dr. Robert Hamblin.

Faulkner was a social moderate, but his writing should be considered in the context of "entrenched and rabid" prejudices Southerners identified with at the time, says Hamblin, director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University.

Hamblin is co-editor of a new book titled "Teaching Faulkner." The collection of essays by literature professors is intended for other professors and for high school English teachers seeking to help students find pathways through Faulkner's often difficult texts.

The book includes Hamblin's essay "Teaching 'Intruder in the Dust' through Its Political and Historical Context," which attempts to demonstrate how Faulkner's writings reflect his view that moderation was the best course to follow toward changing the relationship between the races.

Faulkner died in 1962, but Hamblin is sure he would have been among the enlightened Southerners who welcomed the blossoming of the Civil Rights movement that actually began many years before.

The professor himself grew up in Mississippi and attended the University of Mississippi. Reading Richard Wright, taking the Bible story of the Good Samaritan to heart, and rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, instead of the then-anti-integration St. Louis Cardinals, helped him get beyond the prejudices he grew up with, Hamblin said.

The Center for Faulkner Studies he directs boasts the world's finest collection of Faulkner books, almost 2,000 photographs relating to the writer and more than 2,000 pages of manuscript materials among its archives.

The center attracts scholars and Faulknerphiles. Chooky Faulkner journeyed here from Oxford in October to reminisce about his uncle in a public lecture.

Faulkner is especially popular in Japan. He visited the country in 1955, and all of his works have been translated into Japanese. Hamblin thinks this bond is because Japan and the South have much in common: Both have suffered overwhelming defeat, have adjusted and endured.

Each year, the Japan-based Cape Girardeau company BioKyowa brings a Japanese Faulkner scholar to the center to talk to classes and do research.

The Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast is known for the teaching of Faulkner. Twice yearly, it publishes a newsletter titled Teaching Faulkner. Hamblin helps organize the workshops on teaching Faulkner held annually at the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference at the University of Mississippi. Yoknapatawpha is the fictional county Faulkner created in his books.

He views Faulkner as a transition figure in the modern South. Understanding the context, "You begin to see very quickly how radical Faulkner was in taking on these prejudices," Hamblin says. "But by today's standards he comes off very conservative."