Oxford, Mississippi in Flags in the Dust (Location)

Location Key: 
Display Label: 
Oxford
Map Icon: 
OutOfYoknapatawpha
Authority : 
Context (text, as interpreted)
X: 
2350
Y: 
300
Description: 

It is well established that the imaginary town of Jefferson, seat of the imaginary county of Yoknapatawpha, is based on Faulkner's real home town of Oxford, Mississippi, seat of Lafayette County. One crucial difference between the two towns is that there is no university in Jefferson, so when Young Bayard and his drinking buddies drive out of town to serenade the women's dorm on a college campus, the trip gives Faulkner a way to establish the distance between his fictional world and the real one. Bayard drives north to get to Oxford, though the text gives no clear indication of exactly how far apart those two towns are. (Elsewhere, for example in Absalom! and The Unvanquished, Faulkner puts Oxford forty miles away from Yoknapatawpha - but he never indicates in which direction.)

Role: 
Site of Event
Status: 
Continuous
Types: 
School

digyok:node/location/1179