This paper explores the relationality between Modernism and

Postmodernism as well as between literature and theory by

examining the works of two writers: master novelist William

Faulkner, and high priest of Postmodernism, Jean Baudrillard.

Specifically, this paper examines Faulkner’s eleventh novel—the

oft-neglected If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem—as a proto-postmodern

text which, when examined by the light of Baudrillard’s theory

of simulacra and simulations, informs the transition from

Modernism to Postmodernism.

This paper treats each author’s work as a lens through which to

view the other. The result is both a re-vision of Faulkner’s

social philosophy and a re-examination of the epistemic break

that separates Faulkner’s philosophy from that of Baudrillard.