Abstract: Yusef Komunyakaa claims that, Like word made flesh, South has been woven through my bones (163). Komunyakaa's statement indicates degree to which South's landscape, people, and language continue to compel new generations of southern writers. But as Komunyakaa and other gifted southern writers know, nature of region and its inhabitants is, and always has been, dynamic. The shift in appearances and demographics South has undergone provides fresh material for its artists. Even when an artist uses distant past as a setting, world he or she lives in will, of course, influence how work is shaped, presented, and interpreted. This issue of Studies in Literary Imagination is devoted to South's contemporary literary practice, and therefore features perspectives of both creative writers and critics. Dave Smith, one of most important writers of his generation, presents a tour de force essay depicting his vision of American poetry's evolution, from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to Larry Levis. The distinguished novelist and short-story writer Lee Smith addresses necessity of narrative for confronting human experience, and applies it to development of New South. Yusef Komunyakaa confronts how being raised in South has affected his verse, and another talented poet, Kate Daniels, provides insight into how and why she organized A Millennial Gathering of Writers of New South, which was held at Vanderbilt University in April of 2000. Daniels's assertion that she sought to bring together the motliest group of southern writers ever convened in same place at same time, in order for the convened writers themselves [to] be text (114), reflects how South's literary culture has changed. As William Andrews, President of Society for Study of Literature points out in his essay, Southern literature has always been composed of a diverse constituency of writers and (108), but Daniels's rationale for Millennial Gathering helps illustrate how writers associated with different traditions are now profiting from one another more than ever. The essays by Andrews and five other scholars suggest how critical conceptions of southern literature have evolved. Sidney Burris, Felicia Pattison, and David Rio stress postmodern or international themes when discussing one of twentieth century's literary geniuses, Robert Penn Warren. Burris uses Audubon as a springboard to contemplate teaching of literature--particularly poetry--in an age when students are accustomed to high-speed technological forms of communication. Pattison focuses on how Warren's final novel, A Place to Come To, is his most contemporary, or postmodern, response to issues that have informed much of his poetry and prose. David Rio, a scholar from Universidad del Pais Vasco in Spain, explores interconnections between images of South and of Europe in Warren's fiction. …
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-03-22
Language: en
Type: article
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