The works of Louisiana authors differ from the works of other Southern writers in significant ways. Strong French, Spanish, Native American, and African American traditions shaped Louisiana culture, and Louisiana writers reflect that cultural diversity in their works. So too, historical and religious influences caused Louisiana to develop in a distinct way, and these influences have similarly affected Louisiana writers. The narrative styles employed by these writers generally differ from the styles of other Southern authors. While contemporary Louisiana writers have contributed a substantial body of work to Southern literature, their writings have not received adequate scholarly attention. This book provides a critical introduction to Louisiana literature and gives special attention to how Louisiana literature and culture depart from the rest of the South.
The volume is the first collection of scholarly studies focusing on Louisiana writers from the 1930s to the present. Drawing together discussions of 15 of Louisiana's current premier fiction writers, the collection is organized into three broad sections. The first examines Louisiana narratives and folk traditions; the second, influences of religious traditions on Louisiana writers, including Protestantism, Catholicism, and Paganism; and the third, the construction of gender and race in Louisiana culture. Included are discussions of such writers as Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Rice, James Lee Burke, Moira Crone, John Dufresne, Michael Lee West, Rebecca Wells, and Robert Olin Butler.
Show moreThe works of Louisiana authors differ from the works of other Southern writers in significant ways. Strong French, Spanish, Native American, and African American traditions shaped Louisiana culture, and Louisiana writers reflect that cultural diversity in their works. So too, historical and religious influences caused Louisiana to develop in a distinct way, and these influences have similarly affected Louisiana writers. The narrative styles employed by these writers generally differ from the styles of other Southern authors. While contemporary Louisiana writers have contributed a substantial body of work to Southern literature, their writings have not received adequate scholarly attention. This book provides a critical introduction to Louisiana literature and gives special attention to how Louisiana literature and culture depart from the rest of the South.
The volume is the first collection of scholarly studies focusing on Louisiana writers from the 1930s to the present. Drawing together discussions of 15 of Louisiana's current premier fiction writers, the collection is organized into three broad sections. The first examines Louisiana narratives and folk traditions; the second, influences of religious traditions on Louisiana writers, including Protestantism, Catholicism, and Paganism; and the third, the construction of gender and race in Louisiana culture. Included are discussions of such writers as Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Rice, James Lee Burke, Moira Crone, John Dufresne, Michael Lee West, Rebecca Wells, and Robert Olin Butler.
Show moreProvides a critical introduction to Louisiana literature and focuses on how Louisiana literature and culture converge with and depart from the rest of the South.
Introduction: Writing Louisiana: A New Generation Tells Their
Stories
Louisiana Narrative and Folk Traditions
Living on the Edge in Rebecca Well's Little Altars Everywhere by
Mary Ann Wilson
Food and Foodways in Michael Lee West's She Flew the Coop: A Novel
Concerning Life, Death, Sex, and Recipes in Limoges, Louisiana by
Lisa Abney
Toole's Louisiana Voice in The Neon Bible by Patricia A.
Threatt
The Kingfish as Author: Huey Long's Two Political Autobiographies
by Philip Dubuisson Castille
Locating Community in Contemporary Southern Fiction: Analyzing
Robert Olen Butler's A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Erin
E. Campbell Cash
The Spell of the Swampland: The Gulf Coast Fictions of Shirley Ann
Grau by Sally Blanton
Outside of Time: Dave Robicheaux and the Criminal Kind of
Postmodern Louisiana by Thomas Easterling
From Huey Long to Willie Stark: Louisiana Politics in All the
King's Men by Harold Woodell
Paganism, Papism, Protestantism, and the New Southern
Religion
Postmodernism Goes South: John Dufresne's Louisiana Power and Light
by David J. Caudle
Fiction is My Religion: Conversations with John Dufresne by Kevin
Blaine Bell and David J. Caudle
Invoking Generational Demons: Orality and Catholicism in The
Witching Hour by Kenneth Price and Shelby Posrak
The Complicated Catholicism of Andre Dubus by Michael
Cocchiarale
Lady of the Earth and Moon: Goddess Imagery and the Ya Yas by Lori
Rowlett
Black Cat Bone and Snake Wisdom: New Orleans Hoodoo, Haitian
Voodoo, and Rereading Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God by
Pamela Glenn Menke
Three Castes of Race and Gender
Awakening the Essence of Blue: The Emerging Southern Women of Kate
Chopin and Moira Crone by Suzanne Disheroon Green
Equality for African American (Wo)Men: Quests for Masculinity in
Ernest Gaines's Bloodline by Laurie Champion
Against Regulations: Southern Women in the Fiction of Rebecca Wells
by Patricia M. Grant
Ellen Gilchrist's Heroines, the Scourge of New Orleans by Mary
McCay
Rape and Redemption: The Revision of Colored Female Chastity in
Pauline Hopkin's Contending Forces and Anne Rice's The Feast of All
Saints by Amy Anastasia Birge
Bloodlines: Representations of Black and White Creoles in the
Fiction of Ernest Gaines by Keith Byerman
SUZANNE DISHEROON GREEN is Assistant Professor of English at
Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her
previous books include Kate Chopin: An Annotated Bibliography of
Critical Works (Greenwood, 1999). She has published numerous
articles on Kate Chopin and other Southern writers.
LISA ABNEY is Director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and
Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern State University.
Her essays have appeared in such journals as American Folklore
Society News, Louisiana English Journal, and CEA Critic.
"In Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana, [the
authors] take the exploration of Louisianan language and culture
beyond its written manifestation. As an anthology of literary
criticism, Songs of the New South takes a holistic approach to
literary anaylsis; the editors and contributing writers filter
Louisiana's contemporary literature through critical, historical,
and anthropological lenses. The result is a novel and insightful
appraisal of Louisiana's contemporary literature, a valuable new
resource for research as well as personal enrichment. Songs of the
New South tackles Louisiana culture on multiple levels, from the
realm of the political to the realm of the supernatural; fresh
criticism of canon staples like Ernest Gaines, Zora Neale Hurston,
and Kate Chopin is placed alongside scholarly analyses of
romance/horror novelist Anne Rice. It is a fascinating
read."-Elizabeth Brown-Guillory Professor of English Associate Dean
University of Houston
"Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana, edited by
Suzanne Disheroon Green and Lisa Abney, is a comprehensive and
highly reasonable collection of critical articles about well known
and not so well known Louisiana writers....Green and Abney's
collection is valuable for several reasons. It shows the breadth of
literature by Louisiana writers; it presents good scholarship by
both junior and senior scholars in the field; and, perhaps, most
important, it kindles a desire to enjoy some old favorites and to
learn more about lesser known but also excellent Louisiana
writers."-Anne E. Rowe Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
The Florida State University
"Suzanne Disheroon Green and Lisa Abney create a literary
Preservation Hall with a collection that gives repeated testimony
to Louisiana's unique appeal to Crane and many other contemporary
authors, as varied a group as Ernest Gaines and Anne Rice. Neither
the authors nor the 20 essayists who discuss their work are mired
in mossy swamps of the past, however; instead, they explore
Louisiana's oral narrative tradition, its atypical religious
heritage, and its drama of race and gender in modern--even
postmodern--contexts. Songs of the New South rings with the music
of Louisiana voices and the blues-to-zydeco moments of Louisiana
lives."-Joan Hall Wylie Instructor in English University of
Mississippi
.,."for students exploring relationships between literature and
regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above."-Choice
?...for students exploring relationships between literature and
regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above.?-Choice
..."for students exploring relationships between literature and
regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above."-Choice
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
