A Companion to the Literature and Culture of the American South

From slave narratives to the Civil War, and from country music to Southern sport, this Companion is the definitive guide to the literature and culture of the American South. Includes discussion of the visual arts, music, society, history, and politics in the region Combines treatment of major literary works and historical events with a survey of broader themes, movements and issues Explores the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Zora Neale Huston, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, as well as those - black and white, male and female - who are writing now Co-edited by the esteemed scholar Richard Gray, author of the acclaimed volume, A History of American Literature (Blackwell, 2003)

Acknowledgments x Notes on Contributors xii List of Plates xviii PART I Introduction 1 1 Writing Southern Cultures 3 Richard Gray PART II Themes and Issues 27 2 The First Southerners: Jamestown’s Colonists as Exemplary Figures 29 Mary C. Fuller 3 Slave Narratives 43 Jerry Phillips 4 Plantation Fiction 58 John M. Grammer 5 The Slavery Debate 76 Susan-Mary Grant 6 Southern Writers and the Civil War 93 Susan-Mary Grant 7 Visualizing the Poor White 110 Stuart Kidd 8 Southern Appalachia 130 Linda Tate 9 The Southern Literary Renaissance 148 Robert H. Brinkmeyer, Jr. 10 The Native-American South 166 Mick Gidley and Ben Gidley 11 Southern Music 185 John White 12 Country Music 203 Barbara Ching 13 The Civil Rights Debate 221 Richard H. King 14 Southern Religion(s) 238 Charles Reagan Wilson 15 African-American Fiction and Poetry 255 R. J. Ellis 16 Southern Drama 280 Mark Zelinsky and Amy Cuomo 17 Sports in the South 297 Diane Roberts 18 The South Through Other Eyes 317 Helen Taylor 19 The South in Popular Culture 335 Allison Graham PART III Individuals and Movements 353 20 Edgar Allan Poe 355 Henry Claridge 21 Southwestern Humor 370 John M. Grammer 22 Mark Twain 388 Peter Stoneley 23 Ellen Glasgow 403 Julius Rowan Raper 24 Fugitives and Agrarians 420 Andrew Hook 25 William Faulkner 436 Richard Godden 26 Literature of the African-American Great Migration 454 Kate Fullbrook 27 Zora Neale Hurston 472 Will Brantley 28 Flannery O’Connor 486 Susan Castillo 29 Eudora Welty 502 Jan Nordby Gretlund 30 Oral Culture and Southern Fiction 518 Jill Terry 31 Recent and Contemporary Women Writers in the South 536 Sharon Monteith 32 The South in Contemporary African-American Fiction 552 A. Robert Lee 33 Writing in the South Now 571 Matthew Guinn PART IV Afterword 589 34 Searching for Southern Identity 591 James C. Cobb Index 608