Jordan J. Dominy
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496826404
- eISBN:
- 9781496826459
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496826404.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The formalized study of southern literature in the mid-twentieth century is an example of scholars formalizing the study of modernist aesthetics in order to suppress leftist politics and sentiments ...
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The formalized study of southern literature in the mid-twentieth century is an example of scholars formalizing the study of modernist aesthetics in order to suppress leftist politics and sentiments in literature and art. This formalized, institutional study was initiated in a climate in which intellectuals were under societal pressure, created by the Cold War, to praise literary and artistic production representative of American values. This even in southern literary studies occurred roughly at the same time that the United States sought to extoll the virtues of America’s free, democratic society abroad. In this manner, southern studies and American studies become two sides of the same coin. Intellectuals and writers that promoted American exceptionalism dealt with the rising Civil Rights Movement and the nation’s complicated history with race and poverty by casting the issues as moral rather than political problems that were distinctly southern and could therefore be corrected by drawing on “exceptional” southern values, such as tradition and honor. The result of such maneuvering is that over the course of the twentieth century, “south” becomes more than a geographical identity. Ultimately, “south” becomes a socio-political and cultural identity associated with modern conservatism with no geographical boundaries. Rather than a country divided into south and north, the United States is divided in the twenty-first century into red and blue states. The result of using southern literature to present southern values as appropriate, moderate values for the whole nation during the Cold War is to associate these values with nationalism and conservatism today.Less
The formalized study of southern literature in the mid-twentieth century is an example of scholars formalizing the study of modernist aesthetics in order to suppress leftist politics and sentiments in literature and art. This formalized, institutional study was initiated in a climate in which intellectuals were under societal pressure, created by the Cold War, to praise literary and artistic production representative of American values. This even in southern literary studies occurred roughly at the same time that the United States sought to extoll the virtues of America’s free, democratic society abroad. In this manner, southern studies and American studies become two sides of the same coin. Intellectuals and writers that promoted American exceptionalism dealt with the rising Civil Rights Movement and the nation’s complicated history with race and poverty by casting the issues as moral rather than political problems that were distinctly southern and could therefore be corrected by drawing on “exceptional” southern values, such as tradition and honor. The result of such maneuvering is that over the course of the twentieth century, “south” becomes more than a geographical identity. Ultimately, “south” becomes a socio-political and cultural identity associated with modern conservatism with no geographical boundaries. Rather than a country divided into south and north, the United States is divided in the twenty-first century into red and blue states. The result of using southern literature to present southern values as appropriate, moderate values for the whole nation during the Cold War is to associate these values with nationalism and conservatism today.
Gregory S. Jay
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190687229
- eISBN:
- 9780190687250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190687229.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
No novel since Uncle Tom’s Cabin achieved the celebrity and cultural impact of To Kill a Mockingbird in regards to race in America. The chapter explores Lee’s youthful experiments in writing and ...
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No novel since Uncle Tom’s Cabin achieved the celebrity and cultural impact of To Kill a Mockingbird in regards to race in America. The chapter explores Lee’s youthful experiments in writing and gender-bending, and discusses how her first unpublished novel, Go Set a Watchman, approached themes both repressed and continued in Mockingbird. Using ideas from Queer Theory, the chapter argues that Lee’s racial liberalism is less comforting when read through the lens of her gender-bending children and closeted narrator, showing how the plots about Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are finally brought together. Analysis of Lee’s college writings expose her early interest in satirizing Southern racial politics, while biographical information from those years supports hypotheses about her queering of sexual norms.Less
No novel since Uncle Tom’s Cabin achieved the celebrity and cultural impact of To Kill a Mockingbird in regards to race in America. The chapter explores Lee’s youthful experiments in writing and gender-bending, and discusses how her first unpublished novel, Go Set a Watchman, approached themes both repressed and continued in Mockingbird. Using ideas from Queer Theory, the chapter argues that Lee’s racial liberalism is less comforting when read through the lens of her gender-bending children and closeted narrator, showing how the plots about Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are finally brought together. Analysis of Lee’s college writings expose her early interest in satirizing Southern racial politics, while biographical information from those years supports hypotheses about her queering of sexual norms.
