ABSTRACT: Owing to the manorial tradition, entrenched slavery system, closed society, the South had the basic conditions for the development of Gothic novels. Besides, southern literature has always been full of strong political overtones. Faulkner, as the spiritual leader of Southern literature, inherited and developed the characteristics of the traditional Gothic novels. He carefully depicted great changes after the civil war, the unique mentalities of southern people. His gothic background, gothic events and atmosphere, characters, gothic art eeriness, were filled with charm, and enriched Southern Gothic culture. Faulkner fully demonstrated his unique grotesque features by creating a series of eerie Gothic characters with the techniques of stream of consciousness, multi-angle narrative, myth mode and metaphors, thus fully revealed his grotesque style especially in "The Sound and the Fury". His grotesque phantoms were selfish, desperate, ruthless, greedy, weirdly dressed, mentally distorted, all vividly indicated the decline and breakdown of American Southern society.
Keywords: gothic art; grotesque; phantom
