Middlebury

AMST 0342

Literature of American South

Literature of the American South (AL)
In William Faulkner's Absolom, Absolom! Canadian Shreve McCannon commands his roommate, Mississippian Quentin Compson, "Tell about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all?" Our course will take on writers who want to "tell about the South" in the post-Civil War era and beyond, as they seek to help re-define and revitalize their region. We will focus our regional exploration on the "Southern Renascence," when writers and theorists like the Agrarians re-examined Southern history and reconsidered their role in relation to their regional community. Authors including William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams developed a new awareness of the restrictions of racial and gender roles, an interest in literary experimentation, and an increasingly realistic presentation of social conditions in the south. We will consider the legacy of these writers in later 20th century texts by authors such as Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Alice Walker, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Gaines, Randall Kenan and even relative newcomers such as Jackson Tippett McCrea. (Not open to students who have taken FYSE 1336) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Subject:
American Studies
Department:
Program in American Studies
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
AMR LIT NOR
Equivalent Courses:
ENAM 0342 *
FYSE 1336 *

Sections in Fall 2008, School Abroad Spain (Madrid)

Fall 2008

AMST0342A-F08 Lecture (Evans)