Variations on a theme: the Benjy section of 'The sound and the fury' in black and white, color and hypertext

Abstract

The Benjy section of William Faulkner's 'The sound and the fury' presents reader's with a shattered chronology. Meaning, in the original, arises from the reader's internal creation of a linear chronology, the internal linking of discreet events into larger sequences of events. Applying color to the section along chronological lines allows for the reader to assemble a more coherent chronology of the section internally by allowing for more easily intuited links. Transforming the Benjy section into a hypertext incorporates the links between Events directly. These three variations, black and white print, color print, and hypertext all demonstrate and highlight different aspects of the section's inherent complications, as well as demonstrating that the original text's abandonment of traditional narrative time was a serious and direct challenge to the medium of print itself.