New Reconfigurations and New Constructs

In contemporary southern literature, one of the prevalent and recurring elements is the writer’s reconfiguration of race, ethnicity, marriage, and class so that the new constructs mirror new perceptions and conceptions of the southern experience. Using two of these categories, discuss how two of the following texts—the excerpts from Gates’ Colored People, the excerpts from Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, Fields’ “Not Your Singing, Dancing Spade,” or the excerpts from Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow—add a new or fresh dimension to our understanding of the southern imaginary. Restrict your response to 300 words and post it no later than Thursday, April 22, by 9 a.m.

The Changing Southern Imaginary

Contemporary southern literature is comprised of new constructs, a reflection of a broader, more inclusive and a more daring figurative landscape of materials not featured in earlier southern writing—all of which contribute to new perspectives about the South since the Second World War. Drawing on two separate and different aspects of two of the following texts, analyze to what extent they exhibit new dimensions of contemporary literature: Welty’s “A Curtain of Green,” the excerpts from Haley’s Roots, the excerpts from Percy’s The Last Gentleman, or Williams A Streetcar Named Desire. Your response, which should not exceed 250 words, must be posted no later than Thursday, April 8, 2010, at 9 a.m.