Our South : : Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature / / Jennifer Rae Greeson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Greeson, Jennifer Rae,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.)

Our South offers a provocative new interpretation of the literature of the South within the literary and political history of the United States. The richly original central insight is Greeson’s claim that writings about the South have profoundly shaped American literature and culture. Yet, as she details, generations of literary scholars have ignored the South in constructing a national imaginary, and she’s critical of those northern writers who use the South as site of their imperialist visions. With clear critical readings of dozens of specific works, Greeson crucially shows how important region is to an understanding of American culture and identity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction: Magnet South Nationalization / The Plantation South -- The Problem of the Plantation -- Putting the Colonial Past in Its Place -- Domestic Possession and the Imperial Impulse -- The Enemy Within -- Industrialization and Expansion / The Slave South -- Underwriting Free Labor and Free Soil -- American Universal Geography -- Dark Satanic Fields -- The Masterwork of National Literature -- The Question of Empire / The Reconstruction South -- Abandoned Lands and Exceptional Empire -- The Glory of Disaster -- Internal Islands and the American Scene, 1898–1905 -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index