Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The works of Louisiana authors differ from the works of other Southern writers in significant ways. Strong French, Spanish, Native American, and African American traditions shaped Louisiana culture, and Louisiana writers reflect that cultural diversity in their works. So too, historical and religious influences caused Louisiana to develop in a distinct way, and these influences have similarly affected Louisiana writers. The narrative styles employed by these writers generally differ from the styles of other Southern authors. While contemporary Louisiana writers have contributed a substantial body of work to Southern literature, their writings have not received adequate scholarly attention. This book provides a critical introduction to Louisiana literature and gives special attention to how Louisiana literature and culture depart from the rest of the South. The volume is the first collection of scholarly studies focusing on Louisiana writers from the 1930s to the present. Drawing together discussions of 15 of Louisiana's current premier fiction writers, the collection is organized into three broad sections. The first examines Louisiana narratives and folk traditions; the second, influences of religious traditions on Louisiana writers, including Protestantism, Catholicism, and Paganism; and the third, the construction of gender and race in Louisiana culture. Included are discussions of such writers as Ernest J. Gaines, Anne Rice, James Lee Burke, Moira Crone, John Dufresne, Michael Lee West, Rebecca Wells, and Robert Olin Butler.

Reviews

"In Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana, [the authors] take the exploration of Louisianan language and culture beyond its written manifestation. As an anthology of literary criticism, Songs of the New South takes a holistic approach to literary anaylsis; the editors and contributing writers filter Louisiana's contemporary literature through critical, historical, and anthropological lenses. The result is a novel and insightful appraisal of Louisiana's contemporary literature, a valuable new resource for research as well as personal enrichment. Songs of the New South tackles Louisiana culture on multiple levels, from the realm of the political to the realm of the supernatural; fresh criticism of canon staples like Ernest Gaines, Zora Neale Hurston, and Kate Chopin is placed alongside scholarly analyses of romance/horror novelist Anne Rice. It is a fascinating read."-Elizabeth Brown-Guillory Professor of English Associate Dean University of Houston
"Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana, edited by Suzanne Disheroon Green and Lisa Abney, is a comprehensive and highly reasonable collection of critical articles about well known and not so well known Louisiana writers....Green and Abney's collection is valuable for several reasons. It shows the breadth of literature by Louisiana writers; it presents good scholarship by both junior and senior scholars in the field; and, perhaps, most important, it kindles a desire to enjoy some old favorites and to learn more about lesser known but also excellent Louisiana writers."-Anne E. Rowe Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Florida State University
"Suzanne Disheroon Green and Lisa Abney create a literary Preservation Hall with a collection that gives repeated testimony to Louisiana's unique appeal to Crane and many other contemporary authors, as varied a group as Ernest Gaines and Anne Rice. Neither the authors nor the 20 essayists who discuss their work are mired in mossy swamps of the past, however; instead, they explore Louisiana's oral narrative tradition, its atypical religious heritage, and its drama of race and gender in modern--even postmodern--contexts. Songs of the New South rings with the music of Louisiana voices and the blues-to-zydeco moments of Louisiana lives."-Joan Hall Wylie Instructor in English University of Mississippi
.,."for students exploring relationships between literature and regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above."-Choice
...for students exploring relationships between literature and regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above.-Choice
..."for students exploring relationships between literature and regional culture, beginning undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

SUZANNE DISHEROON GREEN is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Her previous books include Kate Chopin: An Annotated Bibliography of Critical Works (Greenwood, 1999). She has published numerous articles on Kate Chopin and other Southern writers. LISA ABNEY is Director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern State University. Her essays have appeared in such journals as American Folklore Society News, Louisiana English Journal, and CEA Critic.