COURSE CODE: AN35012
FALL SEMESTER, 2008–2009
TWENTIETH-CENTURY PROSE OF THE AMERICAN
SOUTH:
WHITE AND AFRICAN AMERICAN VOICES
TIME & PLACE:
INSTRUCTOR:
TIME: 14:00–15:40; Tuesday
PLACE: Seminar room #119, Main Blg of the U
Zsolt Virágos
Office: Room #118, Main Bldg of KU
Telephone: 489–100 (ext.: 22069)
REQUIRED TEXTS, ANTHOLOGIES & STUDY SOURCES:
[1] Each student who has enrolled in this seminar will be given a CD which includes all
required literary texts (short prose) and secondary sources (background material and
critical commentary) assigned for this course of study.
[2] 6 novels listed in the itemized Schedule below
[3] Z. Virágos, The Modernists and Others: The American Literary Culture in the Age
of the Modernist Revolution. IEAS, University of Debrecen, 2008.
[4] recommended reference source: Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Ed. by Charles
Reagan Wilson and William Ferris. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P, 1989.
(NB.: available in the Institute Library).
COURSE GOALS:
This course will examine four major themes in 20th-century American prose: (1) the 20thcentury flowering of Southern writing, the Southern Renaissance and its aftermath; (2) the
African American experience and the changing image of Black Americans, in the light of
literary and historical trends, from the beginning of the century to the 1980s; and (3) the
iconography of Southern living as documented in the prose literature discussed; (4) new
departures in the critical assessment of women's and African American writing. * Close
attention will be given to the powerful way in which selected authors, both white and
African American, male and female, use class, sense of place, Southern identity, established
conventions of Southern writing, the agrarian impulse, racial conflict, myth, regional
religion, local color, inherited clichés of literary stereotypy, and oral tradition to shape their
fiction. Authors selected for study include William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, Margaret
Mitchell, Alice Walker, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, Katherine Anne Porter,
Truman Capote, Richard Wright, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and―although neither
was a Southerner―F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Baldwin.
TERM SCHEDULE & READING ASSIGNMENTS:
[1] GENERAL ORIENTATION & INTRODUCTION
[2] A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE SOUTH
"The Southern Renaissance" ( in Virágos, The Modernists, 57, 61-65)
Patrick Gerster and Nicholas Cords, "The Mythology of the South" [ST1]
George B. Tindall, "Mythology: A New Frontier in Southern History" [ST2]
C. Vann Woodward, "The Search for Southern Identity" [ST3].
[3] SELECTED SHORT STORIES (I)
William FAULKNER (1897–1962), "Barn Burning" [ST4], "That Evening Sun"
[ST5], "Red Leaves" [ST6], "There Was a Queen" [ST7].
Eudora WELTY (1909–2001), "A Worn Path" [ST8], "The Wide Net" [ST9].
 Secondary material:
Virágos, Modernists 366–379
[4] Margaret MITCHELL (1900–1949), Gone With the Wind (1936; I)
 Secondary material:
[ST10] Malcolm Cowley, "Going with the Wind"
[ST11] Richard King, "The 'Simple Story's' Ideology"
optional:
[ST12] Helen Deiss Irvin, "Gea in Georgia"
[ST13] Anne Goodwyn Jones, "Gone With the Wind and Others"
[ST14] Anne Jones, "The Bad Little Girl of the Good Old Days"
[5] Margaret MITCHELL, Gone With the Wind (II)
 Secondary material:
[ST15] James Michener, "The Company of Giants"
[ST16] Darden Ashbury Pyron, "Gone with the Wind as History."
optional:
[ST17] Kenneth O'Brien, "Race, Romance, and the Southern Literary Tradition"
[ST18] Darden Ashbury Pyron, "The Inner War of Southern History"
[6] REGIONAL ICONOGRAPHY: Images of the South (and how to write a "Southern"
story?)
 F. Scott FITZGERALD (1896–1940), "The Ice Palace" [ST19]
[7] Erskine CALDWELL (1903–1987), Tobacco Road (1932, a novel); and "August
Afternoon" (a short story)
 Secondary material:
[ST20] Robert H. Brinkmeyer, "Is That You in the Mirror, Jeeter?: The Reader
and Tobacco Road."
[ST21] Kenneth Burke, "Caldwell: Maker of Grotesques."
[ST22] Sylvia Jenkins Cook, Erskine Caldwell and the Fiction of Poverty.
optional:
[ST23] Sylvia Jenkins Cook, "Caldwell's Politics of the Grotesque."
[ST24] James E. Devlin, "Caldwell's Method and World View."
[ST25] Richard Kelly, and Marcia Pankake. "Fifty Years Since Tobacco Road:
An Interview with Erskine Caldwell."
[ST26] J. H. Marion, J.H., "Star-Dust Above Tobacco Road."
[8]
!!!MIDTERM IN-CLASS TEST!!!
[9] Zora Neale HURSTON (1901–1960), Their Eyes WereWatching God (1937)
 Secondary source:
[ST27] Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the
Speakerly Text."
optional:
[ST28] Cynthia Bond, "Language, Speech, and Difference in Their Eyes Were
Watching God."
[ST29] Maria Tai Wolff, "Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in
Their Eyes Were Watching God".
[10] SELECTED SHORT STORIES (II):
Katherine Anne PORTER (1890–1980), "Holiday" [ST30], "The Grave" [ST31]
Truman CAPOTE (1924–1984), "A Tree of Night" [ST32]
Carson McCULLERS (1917–1967), "The Sojourner" [ST33]
Richard WRIGHT (1908–1960), "Long Black Song" [ST34]
[11] Richard WRIGHT, Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (1945)
 Secondary reading:
[ST35] Blyden Jackson, "Richard Wright."
Virágos, Modernists 95–109.
[12] James BALDWIN (1924–1987), Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953)
 Secondary material: (1)
[ST36] Shirley S. Allen, "The Ironic Voice in Baldwin's Go Tell It on the
Mountain."
!!!(SECOND) PAPER DUE!!!
[13] Alice WALKER (1944- ), The Color Purple (1982)
 Secondary material:
[ST37] Bell Hooks, "Writing the Subject: Reading The Color Purple."
optional:
[ST38] Gina Michelle Collins, "The Color Purple: What Feminism Can Learn
from a Southern Tradition."
[ST39] Tamar Katz, "'Show Me How to Do Like You': Didacticism and
Epistolary Form in The Color Purple."
[14] CONCLUSION AND WRAP-UP
INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD:
Tailored to the requirements of the specialized American Studies training program, this will
be an advanced course of study, with a seminar (on a couple of occasions: a lecture +
seminar) format, concentrating on some selected and sharply focused areas of American
cultural and literary history. There will be a substantial amount of primary reading as well as
writing, and emphasis will also be given to the study of secondary sources (criticism,
commentary, background reading) and individual research. To facilitate this last option,
several texts are offered in the "optional" category. The lecture-plus-seminar format will
make it possible to identify themes of primary interest as well as to devote class time to
question periods, discussion, progress reports, and individual presentations by each student
in the group "for the benefit of the whole class." Some seminars will begin with a brief
written text recognition test and an overview of the relevant issues, this latter presented by
the instructor, who will also moderate and assess the seminar discussions.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION OF COURSE WORK:
There will be altogether four text recognition tests, an in-class test, and a take-home paper.
The latter two assignments will count 50 percent of the final grade. The text recognition
tests will count 15 percent. The remaining 35% can be earned and accumulated through
active involvement in problem development and solution discussion in the individual
seminars and the relevance, didactic approach and linguistic level of the oral reports.
MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS:
(1) "Plagiarism" will result in a failing grade for this course and additional academic
discipline.
(2) It is an essential part of the course requirements to attend all class meetings. If you must
miss a class because of illness or emergency, please let me know, and arrange to complete
any work missed.
LIST OF SECONDARY SOURCES:
(1) Allen, Shirley S. "The Ironic Voice in Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain." James Baldwin: A Critical
Evaluation. Ed. Therman B. O'Daniel. Washington, D.C.: Howard UP, 1977. 30-37.
(2) Bond, Cynthia. "Language, Speech, and Difference in Their Eyes Were Watching God." Zora Neale Hurston.
Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K.A. Appiah. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad, 1993. 204217.
(3) Brinkmeyer, Robert H., Jr. "Is That You in the Mirror, Jeeter?: The Reader and Tobacco Road." Critical Essays
on Erskine Caldwell. Ed. Scott MacDonald. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981. 370-374.
(4) Burke, Kenneth. "Caldwell: Maker of Grotesques." Critical Essays on Erskine Caldwell. Ed. Scott MacDonald.
Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981. 167-173.
(5) Collins, Gina Michelle. "The Color Purple: What Feminism Can Learn from a Southern Tradition." Theory of
Southern Literature. Ed. John Doe. Jackson: The U. of Mississippi P, 1990. 75-87.
(6) Cook, Sylvia Jenkins. Erskine Caldwell and the Fiction of Poverty: The Flesh and the Spirit. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State UP, 1991. 104-121.
(7) Cook, Sylvia Jenkins. "Caldwell's Politics of the Grotesque." From "Tobacco Road" to Route 66: The Southern
Poor White n Fiction. By Sylvia Jenkins Cook. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P, 1976. 64-84.
(8) Cowley, Malcolm. "Going with the Wind." Recasting: "Gone with the Wind" in American Culture. Ed.
Darden Ashbury Pyron. Miami: UP of Florida, 1983. 17-20.
(9) Devlin, James E. "Caldwell's Method and World View." Erskine Caldwell. By James E. Devlin. Boston:
Twayne, 1984. 23-48.
(10) Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "Their Eyes Were Watching God: Hurston and the Speakerly Text." Zora Neale
Hurston. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K.A. Appiah. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad,
1993. 154-203.
(11) Hooks, Bell. "Writing the Subject: Reading The Color Purple." Alice Walker. Ed. Harold Bloom. Modern
Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 215-228.
(12) Irvin, Helen Deiss. "Gea in Georgia: A Mythic Dimension in Gone with the Wind." Recasting. 57-68.
(13) Jackson, Blyden. "Richard Wright." The History of Southern Literature. Ed. Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Baton
Rouge and London: Louisiana State UP, 1985. 443-449.
(14) Jones, Anne Goodwyn. "'Gone With the Wind' and Others: Popular Fiction, 1920-1950." The History of
Southern Literature. Ed. Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State UP, 1985.
363-374.
(15) Jones, Anne. "'The Bad Little Girl of the Good Old Days': Gender, Sex, and the Southern Social Order."
Recasting. 105-115.
(16) Katz, Tamar. "'Show Me How to Do Like You': Didacticism and Epistolary Form in The Color Purple." Alice
Walker. Ed. Harold Bloom. Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. 185-193.
(17) Kelly, Richard and Marcia Pankake. "Fifty Years Since Tobacco Road: An Interview with Erskine Caldwell."
Conversations with Erskine Caldwell. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1988. Literary Conversations Series.
218-232.
(18) King, Richard. "The 'Simple Story's' Ideology: 'Gone with the Wind' and the New South Creed." Recasting.
167-183.
(19) Marion, J.H., Jr. "Star-Dust Above Tobacco Road." Critical Essays on Erskine Caldwell.
MacDonald. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981. 174-179.
Ed. Scott
(20) Michener, James. "The Company of Giants." Recasting. 69-79.
(21) O'Brien, Kenneth. "Race, Romance, and the Southern Literary Tradition." Recasting. 153-166.
(22) Pyron, Darden Ashbury. "Gone with the Wind as History." Recasting. 117-122.
(23) Pyron, Darden Ashbury. "The Inner War of Southern History." Recasting. 185-2O1.
(24) Willingham, Calder. "True Myth-Maker of the Post-Bellum South." Critical Essays on Erskine Caldwell. Ed.
Scott MacDonald. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981. 294-297.
(25) Wood, Gerald. "From The Clansman and Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind: The Loss of American
Innocence." Recasting. 123-136.
(26) Wolff, Maria Tai. "Listening and Living: Reading and Experience in Their Eyes Were Watching God". Zora
Neale Hurston. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah. Amistad Literary Series. New York:
Amistad, 1993. 218-229.
(27) Virágos, Zsolt. The Modernists and Others: The American Literary Culture in the Age of the Modernist
Revolution. IEAS, University of Debrecen, 2008.
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