What Makes Southern Lit Southern?

Southern States

Southern literature can be literature about the South, or literature written by authors who were brought up in the South, spent many years in the South, or came from southern parents.  But exactly where does the “South” begin and end?  Geographically, the South can reach as far west as Oklahoma and Texas, and as far north as Kentucky and Virginia.  Some might argue for the inclusion of parts of Illinois, Tennessee, or Maryland.

Characteristics of southern literature are the significance of family, a sense of community and one’s role within it, religion and the burden religion often brings, land and the promise it brings, and the use of southern dialect.   History is held in high regard in the South, so the historical significance of the town in southern stories is usually discussed at length.

When most people think of Southern Literature, they think of those authors who were distant enough from slavery and the Civil War to write objectively, but still close enough to the long-reaching effects of the war to feel its oppressiveness. It was during the Southern Renaissance that William Faulkner introduced us to his complex narrative techniques in As I Lay Dying and Katherine Anne Porter used religious symbolism in her collection of short stories. Also during this time Robert Penn Warren wrote his highly-acclaimed novel All the King’s Men. Faulkner, who is considered the leading figure in Southern Literature, has influenced southern writers more than anyone since Mark Twain.  Twain, who is often called the father of American literature,  referred to himself as a southern writer. Southern writing has to do with more than geography. 

Today, the tradition of Southern literature persists because of authors like Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg, Alice Walker, Tom Wolfe, and Wendell Berry.

Tell about the South.
What’s it like there?
What do they do there?
Why do they live there?
Why do they live at all?”
~William Faulkner,
Absalom, Absalom!