In this path-breaking study, the author situates Faulkner's most experimental novel in its cultural and literary context and provides an in-depth analysis of the novel's thematic and structural features. Making use of French structuralist tools, Onega demonstrates the inseparability of subject-matter and form and the close relationship between experimentation and ideology, and casts significant new light on the meaning of the novel itself and on its contribution to stream-of-consciousness fiction in general.