The South in Contemporary Popular Literature Thesis
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature The South in Contemporary Popular Literature Thesis Brno 2006 Written by: Tereza Lavická Supervisor: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. I hereby declare that I worked on my thesis on my own and that I used only the sources mentioned in the bibliography. Brno, 21th April 2006 Tereza Lavická 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. for her kind help, comments, and valuable advice that she provided me throughout the thesis as my supervisor. 3 Contents INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...4 CHAPTER 1 The South…………………………………………………………………………7 1.1 People…………………………………………………………………………………….9 1.2 Religion ………………………………………………………………………………….11 1.3 Outdoors…………………………………………………………………... .................13 1.4 Language………………………………………………………………………………... 14 1.5 Music……………………………………………………………………………………. 16 1.6 Violence…………………………………………………………………………………17 CHAPTER 2 Violence in Southern Literature: Historical Outline…………………………..... 18 CHAPTER 3 Comments on Popular Literature……………………………………………….. 22 CHAPTER 4 The Analysis…………………………………………………………………….. 25 4.1 In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993)…………………………………….. 26 4.2 Jolie Blon’s Bounce (2002)……………………………………………………………... 31 4.3 Under Cover of Daylight (1987)………………………………………………………... 35 4.4 Tropical Freeze (1990)………………………………………………………………….. 37 4.5 Hard Aground (1993)……………………………………………………………………39 4.6 Maximum Bob (1991)……………………………………………………………………41 4.7 Jack and the Beanstalk (1984)………………………………………………………….. 44 4.8. Puss in Boots (1987)……………………………………………………………………49 4.9 The Writers‘ Biographies……………………………………………………………….. 51 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..54 SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………...57 RESUMÉ…………………………………………………………………………57 NOTES…………………………………………………………………………...58 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..59 APPENDIX 4 INTRODUCTION “If one thing seems certain about the region of the United States of America known as The South, it is that there will always be those of its inhabitants who will be arguing about whether it can continue to exist .” Louis D. Rubin, Jr. ( The American South 3) The American South has always been well characterised by the words of poverty, agriculture, racism, xenophobia, and the Bible Belt. In the past many foreigners had difficulty understanding the southern way of life closely connected with plantations, slavery, and race riots. The 20th century brought many changes. The South has become urbanized and industrialized; it has changed politically, economically, and socially. Some people have started to cast doubt on the uniqueness of the South, but others have still believed in its distinctiveness. Despite many changes it has experienced in the last one hundred years, the South has remained perhaps the most distinctive region of United States. Southern writers have been able to document the region’s distinctiveness in their novels, short stories, and other pieces of writing. Southerners can be proud of many significant authors such as Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and William Styron. Others have followed in their footsteps. However, only a few contemporary southern writers are known to a Czech reader. Prior to writing the thesis I realized that I could name hardly any of contemporary southern novels. This was the reason why I chose the South and southern literature to be the topic of my thesis. I decided to find out which of the books of contemporary southern literature were available on the Czech market. I searched for any pieces of writing depicting the South in bookshops and libraries. This resulted in the following finding: The majority of the books of contemporary southern literature available on the Czech market fall into the category of popular literature, particularly into the genres of crime and detective fiction. 5 The aim of my thesis is to find certain stereotypes that could be rooted in contemporary popular southern literature available on the Czech market. I expect to examine whether or not the Czech reader can gather enough information about the South from literature. In Chapter 1, I deal with the topic of the South in general. I focus on the southern history and the themes that I consider to be characteristic of the region. Among the discussed themes are people, religion, outdoors, language, music, and violence. In Chapter 2, I briefly examine the development of southern literature. I find the historical outline necessary, for I suppose that contemporary popular literature has been inspired by high literature from previous artistic periods. I put special emphasis on the topics of violence and terror since I consider them to be the most important features of the texts included in the following analysis. In Chapter 3, I comment on the typical features of popular literature. I expect that the characteristics of popular art will help me find the reason why the Czech market is primarily interested in southern detective and crime fiction. The first three chapters serve as a theoretical preparation for the analysis of the chosen texts in Chapter 4. I analyse eight novels from the point of view of their content, with the focus on the southern themes suggested in Chapter 1. I aim to find out how is the South portrayed in these novels. The analysed texts share certain similarities: they all have been published recently, that is after 1980; they are set in the South; and they should be known to a Czech reader. Although I have spent several months in the United States, I have never been to the American South. Academic books and encyclopedias have provided me with good opportunity to learn about the South and southern culture. Concerning my important source, the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture , I will shorten its title to Encyclopedia in parenthetical documentation throughout the thesis. 6 CHAPTER 1 The South The area referred to as the American South lies in the southeastern part of the United States. Sometimes eastern Texas is said to form its border in the West and the Ohio River in the North. However, exact definitions vary from source to source. According to the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture , the South geographically consists of eleven states of the former Confederacy - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennesee, Texas, and Virginia (xv). These states seceded from the United States between 1860 and 1861. Taking cultural aspect into consideration, other states such as Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, are sometimes added to the eleven states of the Confederacy. The reason for the use of the broader definition is the similar historical development of all fifteen states before the Civil War (1861- 1865) (xv). The Oxford Companion to American Literature defines the South as the region including the present states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, eastern Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, and formerly Delaware (Hart 709). This definition is similar to the cultural classification of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture . There are only two exceptions: In The Oxford Companion West Virginia is included and Texas is restricted to its eastern part. Another possible vision of the South is that of social scientists. In addition to the states mentioned above, social scientists include also District of Columbia in their statistics ( Encyclopedia xv). Finally, Houghton Mifflin Company which makes its maps accessible on the Internet excludes Missouri in its definition of the South (see Appendix, Picture 1). 7 A list of several different definitions of the South shows that the region’s border is not clerly defined. However, this is not very important for the purpose of the study of southern culture and its stereotypes. In this chapter, I will describe several southern themes which will serve as a basis for the analysis in Chapter 4. Among the discussed themes will be people, religion, outdoors, language, music, and violence. 1.1 People When talking about the people in the South, one cannot forget to mention black Africans, who formed with English and Scotch-Irish a dominant part of southern population for a long time. Other groups of people mentioned in this section are later immigrants, especially Cajuns, Conchs, and Cubans; rednecks; aristocracy; and Native Americans. I will focus on the typical groups of people in the South regardless of making a difference between race and social class. Growing up Black To talk about blacks in the South often means to talk about race relations. Black southerners were for a long time viewed as subordinate, being exploited, lynched and terrorized by whites. As slaves in the antebellum era, they were an essential part of the labour force. Only a minority of them were free at that time. One could think incorrectly that the abolishment of slavery meant that the blacks were given equal rights. To become free did not mean to become a citizen; in other words, to gain social and political equality. After the Civil War black farm workers became tenants and sharecroppers (Holt, Encyclopedia 135). Landlords maintained maximum control over them which was similar to the era of slavery. Black urban dwellers did not find themselves in a better position because they were excluded from many crafts and newly developing industries (Holt, Encyclopedia 135). In both the cities and the countryside, blacks suffered from violent racism. 8 Segregation, another form of white supremacy,