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Home , Caroline Howard Gilman, Southern Renaissance

сourse: Romance with the American Dream The Regional Aspect of the American Dream: New England, the South, and the Far West Author: Irina V. Morozova

The character of the American Dream — its identity — is determined by many factors, among which an important place must be given to the regionalism of American culture. Regionalism is the result of the gradual settlement of the continent by people who arrived with their own goals and their own dreams. From the very beginning of colonial times, the land was settled by various groups of people, who were constantly joined by new settlers with similar goals. Right from the start, there were three distinct regions. The New England Colonies included: New Plymouth, established in 1620 (it became part of ); Massachusetts Bay (which included the modern state of ), established in 1630; , 1635; , 1636; and , 1638. The Middle (Mid-Atlantic) Colonies included: , 1638; , 1681; , 1664 (from 1631 to 1664 it was the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam); , 1664. The Southern Colonies included: Virginia, 1607; Maryland, 1634; North and , 1663; Georgia, 1732. The first three colonies formed the Upper South, the last three – the Lower South. The colonies of these three regions rapidly spread West, forming the basis for the new country, having won independence from the British Crown in the American Revolution (1775 – 1789). Later, after the huge Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the annexation of Texas in 1845, the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848) and the discovery of gold in California, a new cultural region appeared on the map of American that differed strikingly from the rest – the Far West, often called the Wild West, with its heroes – cowboys and gold miners – and with its dream, often defended with a lasso and a Colt. The Wild West traditionally includes the states of (1806); Texas (1845); California (1850); (1861); (1864); (1876); North and South Dakota (1889); (1890); (1912); (1912). New England, the South, and the Far West have retained their specific regional differences to the present day, which can be seen in literature, music and film. In spite of statements that regional cultural differences have given way to multicultural tendencies, modern tells a different story. For example, there is a very distinct “” style of literature: the works of Cormac McCarthy (born 1933), Harry Crews (1936-2012), and Donna Tartt (born 1963) would be impossible to understand or appreciate without their ties to the cultural traditions of the South. The worlds of horror created by Stephen King (born 1947) unquestionably spring from New England. New England, which from 1791 included , united under its roof deeply religious people, mainly Puritans, followers of the Calvinist (the strictest) branch of Protestantism. Many of them had been persecuted for their faith in their homelands, and for this reason, their dream was freedom of conscience and the establishment of the “city on a hill,” New Jerusalem. They viewed their move to the new continent as an act of Divine Providence, showing them the path to a life where their faith would not be repressed. This is how that dream was presented in the most famous sermon from the Colonial period, “A Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630, given aboard the “Arabella,” the second most important ship (after the “Mayflower”), by John Winthrop (1587/88-1649): “..we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection…We must delight in each other; make other’s conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways… We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, …when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘The Lord make it likely that of New England.’ For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. “

“Arabella” John Winthrop © Public Library Charles Osgood © Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

In other words, the dream of the New England settlers was the construction of a social model founded exclusively on the “unity of the spirit,” the principles of freedom, and Christian charity, which could serve as a model for the rest of the world. This conviction in one’s rectitude, on the one hand, and on the other, the deep-seated reflex characteristic of Protestants on the “correctness” of reading God’s word, defined the New England “regional dream.” It also contained one of the most important ethical principles of Protestantism – respect for labor, as well as constant improvement of oneself and the surrounding environment. In essence, the New England Puritan thought of his life as a short-term stay of his spirit in an earthly shell, and in the final analysis, he either would or would not be saved. For this reason, the New England version of the American Dream, especially during the Colony’s first years, has a clearly defined religious content. For example, misfortune that fell to the Christian’s lot was seen as a sign from God, a test of the strength of his faith. In one of the most famous texts of the 17th century, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson 1682), written by a native of New England, Mary Rowlandson, (born 1635/37 – 1711), who had been captured by Indians, this idea of trials sent by God is clearly expressed: “Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it. When I lived in prosperity, having the comforts of the world about me, my relations by me, my heart cheerful, and taking little care for anything, and yet seeing many, whom I preferred before myself, under many trials and afflictions, in sickness, weakness, poverty, losses, crosses, and cares of the world, I should be sometimes jealous least I should have my portion in this life, and that Scripture would come to my mind, ‘For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth’ (Hebrews 12.6) … Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had, full measure (I thought), pressed down and. Yet I see, when God calls a person to anything, and through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby. And I hope I can say in some measure, as David did, ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted …I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them.’ (Psalms 118:71). As Moses said, ‘Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord’ (Exodus 14.13).” Such an attitude towards one’s own life certainly gave rise to specific traits in the New England character – its resilience and refusal to knuckle under in the face of life’s trials. Even though the New England dream dealt less with the material than the spiritual – being saved – it still gave the material world huge importance, as an area for improvement according to God’s plan. The intense scrutiny of the surrounding world with the goal of deciphering divine messages could not fail to have a distinct effect on a person’s character, value system, mentality, and therefore to create a special intellectual tradition. This tradition is distinguished by intense reflection on the battle between Good and Evil, constant doubt about the rightness of the chosen path, and tireless work on improving oneself and the surrounding world, i.e., on creating the model “city on a hill” that the first settlers were dreaming of. It is no accident that almost all the Founding Fathers were followers of this intellectual tradition. At the beginning of the 20th century, the grandson and great-grandson of two U.S. presidents, Henry Adams (1838-1918), in his final work The Education of Henry Adams (1907), gave the following definition of the New England character and the consciousness of a resident of that region: “Resistance to something was the law of New England nature; the boy looked out on the world with the instinct of resistance; for numberless generations his predecessors had viewed the world chiefly as a thing to be reformed, filled with evil forces to be abolished…”

Henry Adams Herman Melville William Notman Joseph Oriel Eaton © Archives © Houghton Library, Harvard University

The world as an arena for the struggle between Good and Evil was most clearly presented in the works of New England Romantics, who reflected on the disconnect between the dream of an ideal society and the real world. They saw human nature as the reason why it was impossible to create that world; original sin was responsible. Herman Melville (1819 —1891) wrote about this in Moby Dick, or The Whale, (1851) his famous novel in which Captain Ahab projects his sinful nature onto the outside world and creates Evil. Later, the idea of Evil and the ability of the human mind to create it would form the basis for the horror in the worlds of Howard Phillips “H. P.” Lovecraft (1890-1937), who inspired the aforementioned “king of horror” Stephen King. The theme of the sinfulness of the human soul, as one of the main motifs in New England religious consciousness, forms the basic premise for the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864), one of the most brilliant of the New England writers. In his novel The Scarlet Letter (1850), he shows the impossibility of attaining a dream if one does not have the strength to admit one’s sin. Dimmesdale, the minister, dies without confessing to adultery, while the heroine, Hester Prynne, condemned by the residents for that sin, gradually wins their respect and in practical terms demonstrates her right to live independently, free from prejudice. Howard Phillips Lovecraft Nathaniel Hawthorne Lucius B. Truesdell Mathew Brady © Wikimedia Commons © Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division , D.C. 20540 USA

It is not surprising that with such a satisfying interior world, New England was the birthplace of the national intellectual and philosophical tradition in America. The first settlers, after all, in order to provide for the spiritual state of the region’s residents, established the first college in 1636 to educate the clergy, which has now become a world leader for scholarship – Harvard University. Naturally, it was New England thinkers who founded the first national philosophy – transcendentalism (from the Latin transcendens – to go beyond). Transcendentalism is rightfully considered the philosophy of American individualism, expressed in the doctrine of “self-reliance.” This doctrine, which encourages trust in one’s instincts and intuition in identifying Good and Evil, became a unique philosophical basis for the American individualist- enthusiast, happily discovering his internal world as an absolute, but not sole value of the universe. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” — these lines by Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) are the best reflection of the essence of the transcendentalist concept of the value of the individual and its interconnection with the people and the world around it. It is natural that abolitionism (from the Latin “abolitio” – to abolish; movement to abolish slavery and to free the slaves) was most widespread among New England intellectuals, with their desire to remake the world, and their refusal to accept a lack of freedom in their land. It was within the confines of this movement that the most famous anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), was written. It may be impossible to find a work of literature in any other country that would have such a powerful effect on the consciousness of a nation as this novel. There is a legend that President Abraham Lincoln, meeting the author at the beginning of the Civil War (1861—1865) half in jest said “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” The fates of the main heroes as well as many of the minor characters in the novel reflected all of the disasters and humiliations that slavery inflicted on dark-skinned people. Slavery is presented in the novel as a completely immoral phenomenon, that has equally negative effects on slaveowners as slaves, since it morally cripples them. Abolitionism, by bringing the problems of freedom and independence of the black slave to the forefront, forced society to confront these problems in a general sense. For example, one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, William Lloyd Garrison (1805—1879), not only rejected slavery, he defended the freedom and independence of all people and all nations, with their right to a peaceful life. In the famous “Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by the Peace Convention,” (1838) he declared: “Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence, we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury.”

William Lloyd Garrison © Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

It is interesting to note that this dream of the New England philosopher elicited a sincere response by L. N. Tolstoy, who called Garrison “one of the greatest people,” “who was, and is, not only a warrior in the fight against slavery in America, but a great prophet for all mankind.” Tolstoy translated the “Declaration of Sentiments” and included this translation in his tract The Kingdom of God is Within You (1890—1893). This tireless New England striving, this desire to remake and perfect the world, was far from always in tune with the hopes and dreams of their Southern neighbors, which, actually, led to one of the most important chapters in the history of the – the Civil War. The slave-owning South, from the very beginning of its existence, differed significantly in its ideological, social, and economic climate. It became the home of people who came not for freedom of religion (with the exception of the state of Maryland, which had been a refuge for English Catholics), but for material prosperity. By the mid-19th century, this region, which at various times was joined by Texas, , Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, , , Maryland, Florida, , already differed so much from all the other regions of the U.S. that it was, in the words of modern historians, “a country within a country.’ Captain John Smith (1580 – 1631), founder of the Virginia Colony, in his work The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624), did a lot to shape the image of the South as a land of plenty, with generous and fertile land, in which every man can attain happiness. Of course, this was happiness for the white man. In 1619, the first slave ship arrived on Virginia’s shores, bringing dark-skinned people, for whom happiness was not provided. The South’s emergence as a distinct region was, of course, aided by its geographical position, special natural and climate features – a lot of sunshine, moisture, lush vegetation. In the letters of planter William Byrd (1674 – 1744), dating from 1726-27, there is a fairly broad picture of an almost idyllic existence in Virginia. The author describes the climate, the wonderful flowering spring, the warm sunshine, the fresh air and the cloudless sky. “our land produces all the fine things of Paradise, except innocence and the Tree of Life.” This perception of Virginia was characteristic of the South as a whole, existing in the consciousness of white Southerners up until the Civil War. It is a mythical image of a perfectly organized patriarchal society, in which every Southerner, black and white, man and woman, rich or poor, occupied the place they were meant to and were happy there. The family is the basis for the Southern idea of the stability of the world of the South. At the head of the family was a man, the master, who was responsible for the material security of the family, the Southern cavalier, whose characteristic qualities were honor, duty, paternalism, and gallantry. The women ruled the spiritual side, embodying love, tenderness, friendship, and all the other Christian virtues; this is a Southern Lady – mother, wife, and respectable, prudent mistress of a large family. The white family was completed by its black servants, among whom the leading role belonged to the black “mammy,” a type of link between the black and white members of the family. This image is awarded the highest moral qualities and is a kind of emblem of the spiritual and material worlds of the family to which this “mammy” belongs. All the other black members of a white Southern family – naïve, kind, satisfied large children, demanding constant care and a certain strictness, as the Southern writer Caroline Howard Gilman (1794 – 1888) noted, made up a specific kind of “landscape” against which the life of the Southerner transpired.

Caroline Howard Gilman © Harvard Art Museums

This image has had extraordinary cultural-historical stability from the moment it appeared in American national literature in the 1830s. It was writers who had the most immediate effect on the creation of the South’s image in the antebellum years; they saw the South as the embodiment of a dream of a harmonious and aristocratic society. The novels of William Gilmore Simms (1806 – 1870), such as Gay Rivers: A Tale of Georgia (1834); The Yemassee (1835); Richard Hurdis, Or, The Avenger of Blood: A Tale of Alabama (1838) and many others, were designed to glorify the Southern way of life with Southern cavaliers and ladies, so far from Yankee practicality, with special Southern spirituality, and patriarchal concepts of honor, respectability and hospitality. The strength of these concepts of the South, and their effect on Southerners themselves, even years after the Civil War that supposedly destroyed that world, was described in Life on the Mississippi (1883) by Mark Twain (1835 – 1910): “There, the genuine and wholesome civilization of the nineteenth century is curiously confused and commingled with the Walter Scott Middle-Age sham civilization; and so you have practical, common-sense, progressive ideas, and progressive works; mixed up with the duel, the inflated speech, and the jejune romanticism of an absurd past that is dead, and out of charity ought to be buried.” The unfading charm of this image of the Old South and its particular spirituality retains its power even today, aided in no small part by ’s 1936 novel Gone with the Wind, along with the 1939 film version. Margaret Mitchell drew a charming portrait of the South and Southerners, living according to a code of conduct passed down through generations, and forming the basis of the Southern way of life. This code of conduct, according to American researcher S. Brabant, boils down to a person having to act in order to survive, but must do it with as much dignity as possible.

Маргарет Митчелл Al Aumuller © Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

The defeat of the South in the Civil War obviously did not destroy the myth; on the contrary, it gave rise to a new myth, nostalgia for the “Lost Cause,” characterized by the tragic rejection of an unfair, merciless time. This theme, the shattered dream of a harmonious Southern life, is taken up by the literature of the “Southern Renaissance” – the period of the development of Southern literature in the 1920s through the 1950s, thanks to which the Southern myth did not disappear, but instead far exceeded its chronological and cultural framework, overcame its regional nature and transformed itself into a phenomenon of American national culture. An entire pantheon of remarkable authors called for a reexamination of Southern history in the modern context. The Southern Renaissance included (1897 – 1962), (1905 – 1989), Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams III, 1911 – 1983). Truman Capote (born Truman Streckfus Persons, 1924 – 1984), Flannery O’Connor (1925 – 1964), Carson McCullers (born Lula Carson Smith, 1917 – 1967), (1909 – 2001), (1926 – 2016), and others.

William Faulkner Carl Van Vetchen © Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA In the words of William Faulkner, writers of this region “seem to try in the simple furious breathing (or writing) span of the individual to draw a savage indictment of the contemporary scene or to escape from it into a make-believe region of swords and magnolias and mocking-birds…” The Southern writers of the 20th century are characterized by a concept of cyclical, rather than linear, time, the appeal to myth, to dying and feeling of guilt towards the black population. As William Faulkner put it, every white Southerner is born nailed to a black cross. This gives rise to a tragic view of a world that is falling apart, dying right before one’s eyes. This gives rise to a fierce resistance to the passage of time, to change. This is why one of Faulkner’s most significant works, (1929) ends with a scene where Benjy forces the buggy to turn in its habitual direction, so that “cornice and facade flowed smoothly once more from left to right; post and tree, window and doorway, and signboard, each in its ordered place.” In the novels of the South, this nostalgia for “ordered places” is often accompanied by the depiction of a tragically absurd world, in which, however, there is room for hope, for the dream that it can be restored. These dreams are embodied in children, who personify the idea of purity and innocence, and, primarily in the images of black “mammys” and colored friends, bearers of goodness, common sense and, in general, all the natural impulses that white Southerners have lost. This is Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury, Catherine Creek in The Grass Harp, (1951) by Truman Capote, and Calpurnia in , (1960), by Harper Lee. All these Southern writers brought glory to American literature. As James Billington, director of the Library of Congress, said in an interview with Literaturnaya Gazeta in 1988, the best American literature comes from the South. Southerners may have lost the war, he said, but they won great literature, perhaps because they have suffered so much.

James Billington John Mathew Smith © Flickr

Completely different dreams and a completely different type of thought are found in the literature of the Far West, also known as the Wild West and the Old West, and the Roaring West. All of these names come from an attempt to give the closest possible definition of the specific character of this region, which owes its birth and rapid rise to the American frontier – the line, constantly shifting from East to West, that marked the border between settled and virgin lands. The Western expansion and frontier life enabled to formation of a type of character that united brute strength, curiosity, acumen, tireless energy, a sharp, practical mind, and with all of this, a joy in life and an emotionality granted by the constant sense of freedom. On one hand, the limitless expanses that lay before the frontiersman constantly supported the idea of America’s possibilities, there for the taking. On the other, life on the frontier led to a savage competition, a “he who gets there first is right” type of mentality, a pitiless exploitation of land resources and cruelty towards the native population. It was during the massive resettlement of Native that the expressions “the Indians must go” and “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” arose. The Far West and the frontier gave birth to national heroes like hunter and pioneer Daniel Boone (1734 00 1820). Boone’s name became a symbol of the frontiersman and real American thanks to the book by John Filson (1747 – 1788) The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, one chapter of which, “The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone,” told of the unusual feats and actions of the pioneer. The figure of Boone has become part of American folklore, American Romantics were inspired by him as they sought to create the literary image of a real American. James Fenimore Cooper (1798 – 1851), for example, took the theme for his novel The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826) from the story of the kidnapping of Boone’s daughter Jemima by an Indian tribe.

Daniel Boone John Filson James Fenimore Cooper Alonzo Chappel © Wikimedia Commons Mathew Brady © Wikimedia Commons © Brady National Photographic Art Gallery

The most vivid example of the pioneer, reflecting the specific color of the Far, or Wild West, appeared in the second half of the 19th century, when crowds rushed to California gold mines, chasing their get-rich-quick dreams. Francis Bret Harte (1836 – 1902) drew the most vivid and uncompromising picture of this type of person in his works. His short-story-parable “The Luck of the Roaring Camp” (1870) shows this clearly in his characterization of the diverse population, through the list of gifts to an unexpected new-born in the gold miners’ camp, where death was a constant guest, but there had not yet been a single birth. The list includes: “a silver tobacco-box; a doubloon; a navy revolver, silver mounted; a gold specimen; a very beautifully embroidered lady’s handkerchief (from Oakhurst the gambler); a diamond breastpin; a diamond ring (suggested by the pin, with the remark from the giver that he “saw that pin and went two diamonds better”); a slung shot; a Bible (contributor not detected); a golden spur; a silver teaspoon (the initials, I regret to say, were not the giver’s); a pair of surgeon’s shears; a lancet; a Bank of England note for £5; and about $200 in loose gold and silver coin.” This simple enumeration of gifts contains both humor and psychological analysis, allowing the reader to guess the occupation, origin, character and fate of the colorful population of the Roaring Camp. Each gift is quite symbolic: those who bring gifts to the newborn see in him the rebirth of their own failed dreams. Francis Bret Harte Owen Wister Napoleon Sarony © Robarts - University of Toronto © Appleton’s magazine The Far West was not just gold miners; there were people with much more peaceful professions, like cowboys who tended cattle. They become the heroes of short stories by O. Henry (born William Sydney Porter, 1962 – 1910), who knew life in the Far West first-hand – he grew up in Texas. He gathered his observations in a collection of short stories called The Heart of the West (1907), where the action occurs in cowboy camps or on ranches, and the characters are cowboys from the Far West with their ideas of love, fidelity, freedom and true friendship. As the hero of “A Call Loan” says: “it is a man I’ve laid on the same blanket with in cow-camps and ranger-camps for ten years. He can call anything I’ve got. He can call the blood out of my veins and it’ll come.” The stories have an atmosphere of the free life in Nature and good humor – cowboys love practical jokes and are happy to tell about them. This is the atmosphere in which American folklore, with its rough-hewn heroes, was born. Mark Twain also had a deep connection to the Far West. His stories, beginning with “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865) are also full of the slightly crude humor of cowboys and gold miners, and his Huck Finn, who lives on the border between Nature and civilization, contains in himself the main characteristics of the frontier — his love of freedom and his belief in friendship. The spirit of the Far West colors all of The Stories of the North by Jack London (born John Griffith Chaney, 1876 – 1916), who created genuine, cohesive characters who display true fidelity, honor, courage and self-sacrifice. All these works represent a part of truly outstanding American literature, in which the West is presented in all its multi-faceted reality, with all its positive and negative sides. Another tradition that gave birth to numerous stereotypes in the “Western” genre is linked to a novel by Owen Wister (1860 – 1938) The Virginian: A Horsemen of the Plains (1902), which tells the story of a young cowboy in love with a schoolteacher, interrupted from time to time by the schemes of a local villain. The finale of the novel is the fulfillment of the great American Dream: the hero marries, becomes a cattle ranching magnate. The book was a resounding success and gave rise to a host of imitators, promoting the image of the victorious cowboy in literature and film. The Far West left an indelible mark on U.S. culture as a special tradition. This is not just the famous genre of the “Western”; it is heroes of this region representing the genuine American Dream in its romantic and pragmatic variants – a dream of freedom and limitless expanses, of possibilities and rapid riches. This is why everything linked to Western culture in mass consciousness is still unusually attractive right up to today. As we see, the American Dream in its regional aspects has a number of specific characteristics dictated by social, historical and cultural context. Despite the differences of views of the Dream and of values that cannot be sacrificed to attain it, Americans from all regions are united by their faith in the possibilities that America represents. Basic and additional literature:

Baranova, K.M., The Origins of the Basic Leitmotifs of American Literature in the Colonial Period (17th Century), Moscow, 2009 Bolkhovitinov, N.N., “The Role of the ‘Moving Border’ in the History of the U.S.,” Questions of History, No.9, 1962, pp.57-74 Buchanan, P.J., The Death of the West, translation from the English, Moscow, 2003 Vashchenko, A. V., Foreword, Ghosts of the Bisons: American Writers on the Far West, Moscow, Pravda, 1988, pp. 5-12 Vashcehnko, A.V., Literature of the Far West// Problems in the Making of American Literature// A.V. Vashechenko, Moscow, Nauka, 1981, pp. 195-216 A History of U.S. Literature in 7 Volumes/ Zasursky, Ya.N., Korneva, M., Stetsenko, E. editors, Separate Edition, Moscow, 2000 “Mark Twain and his Role in the Development of American Realist Literature,” St.P, articles Ya. N. Zasursky, editor, . Moscow, Nauka, 1987, p. 239 Morozova, I.V., The “Southern Myth” in the Literature of Female Writers in the Old South, St. Petersburg, 2004 Origins and Formation of American National Literature of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Moscow, Nauka, 1985 Stone, I., Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West, 1840-1900, translated from the English by I. Grigulevich, Moscow 1981 Yatsenko, V.I., The Literature of the American South, 1865-1900, Textbook, Ivanovo, 1984 Bradbury J.M. Renaissance in the South: A Critical History of the Literature 1920–1960. Chapel Hill, 2001 Carroll P. N. Puritanism and the Wilderness. New York and London, 1969. Gray R.J. The Literature of Memory: Modern Writers of the American South. New York, 1977 Holman H.C. The Roots of the Southern Writing. Essays on the Literature of the American South. Athens, 2008