The Companion to Southern Literature
The Companion to Southern Literature
Edited by Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda H. MacKethan. Associate Editor Todd Taylor.
Published by Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
This is a weighty clothbound book measuring 8" by 10" and running to 1054 pages including the index and list of contributors, plus 26 preferatory pages including a classified table of contents and an introduction.
This encyclopedia has more than 500 articles on Southern (United States) literature. The articles are on authors, specific works, places, literary terms, genres (traditional and non-traditional), motifs, types and stereotypes, and theories and schools.
The first fifteen entries in the "N" sequence, for a sense of coverage, are:
The article on Native America Literature is actually the longest of the ones listed above, at four pages. It does a nice job of filling a gap in traditional treatments of Southern literature. It provides eleven "see also" references, some also on Native American themes, and six important items for further reading.
The importance of cultural geography is given prominent attention in many of the articles, both in terms of the South as a region and specific parts of the South.
There is good attention to contemporary literary trends in the South; it is not all about literary history.
This is a broad, deep, and evidently a high-quality reference work.
Edited by Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda H. MacKethan. Associate Editor Todd Taylor.
Published by Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
This is a weighty clothbound book measuring 8" by 10" and running to 1054 pages including the index and list of contributors, plus 26 preferatory pages including a classified table of contents and an introduction.
This encyclopedia has more than 500 articles on Southern (United States) literature. The articles are on authors, specific works, places, literary terms, genres (traditional and non-traditional), motifs, types and stereotypes, and theories and schools.
The first fifteen entries in the "N" sequence, for a sense of coverage, are:
- NAACP
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Natchez Trace
- Native American Literature
- Naturalism
- Nature
- Neo-Slave Narrative
- New Criticism
- New Deal
- New Journalism
- New Negro
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- New Orleans Times-Picayune
- New South
- Newspapers
The article on Native America Literature is actually the longest of the ones listed above, at four pages. It does a nice job of filling a gap in traditional treatments of Southern literature. It provides eleven "see also" references, some also on Native American themes, and six important items for further reading.
The importance of cultural geography is given prominent attention in many of the articles, both in terms of the South as a region and specific parts of the South.
There is good attention to contemporary literary trends in the South; it is not all about literary history.
This is a broad, deep, and evidently a high-quality reference work.