Mississippi literature

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The literature of Mississippi, United States, includes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Mississippi has a literary tradition that arose from a diverse mix of cultures and races. [1] Traditional themes from this genre of literature lean towards the past, conflict and change, and southern history in general; however, in the modern era, work have shifted towards deeply Southern works that do not rely on these traditional themes. [2]

Contents

Some prominent writers from Mississippi's past include William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Tennessee Williams, and Eudora Welty, while modern writers include John Grisham, Natasha Trethewey, Jesmyn Ward, and Michael Farris Smith. [1] [2]

History

Early history (1800s–1920s)

Beginning from statehood in 1817, Mississippi played a very small role in United States literature. Weber (1898) mentioned that at the time of his writing, Mississippi had "few grounds for boasting. The list of Mississippi books is not long; the average quality is nothing. Of pure literature, of the real literature of power, we have contributed scarcely 50 pages to the world's store." [3]

Mississippi's general trend of apathy towards serious literature continued into the 1920s, with Elsie Dersham (1921) reiterating Weber's statements in "An Outline of American State Literature" and discussing lost opportunities to add to Mississippi's literary repertoire. The author writes: [4]

Mississippi has contributed much more to politics than to literature. With the single exception of the poems of Irvin Russel, Mississippi has produced nothing which literary men have been willing to give a place in American literature. She has many interesting Indian legends and negro folk tales, and accounts of the doings of Mississippian laws that should be collected and made a part of her literature. Williams Ward is one of Mississippi's best poets and is the author of the well known poem "Katie Did."

Literary beginnings (1930s–1940s)

William Faulkner and Eudora Welty both published many of their most significant works during the 1930s and 1940s, drawing international attention to Mississippi. Faulkner published The Sound and The Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). In 1949, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Welty published her short story collections A Curtain Green (1941), Music from Spain (1948), and The Golden Apples (1949) in the forties, as well as her first novel Delta Wedding in 1946. Margaret Walker published her first poetry collection For My People in 1942 before moving to Mississippi.

Civil rights era (1950s–1970s)

The University Press of Mississippi began operating in 1970. With the support of the state's eight public universities and the Mississippi Institutes of Higher Learning, the press publishes around 85 books a year on topics concerning the culture of the South, expert books, and writings related to specialized topics, such as African American, Caribbean, and pop culture studies. [5]

Modern era (1980s-present)

In the modern era, writers have shifted towards deeply Southern works that do not necessarily rely on traditional themes related to the Lost Cause and racial conflict. [2] The change in race relations over the years contributed to the expansion of topics from race to broader areas such as the working class and underdogs. [2]

Beginning in 2005 and relaunching in 2016, The Cirlot Agency, located in Jackson, ran advertisements promoting the state's literary history as part of the Mississippi, Believe It! campaign. The campaign cited William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, and John Grisham as a few examples of Mississippi's literary heritage. [6]

In 2018, the Mississippi Arts Commission and Mississippi Humanities Council announced intentions for the Mississippi Writers Trail, modeled off of the Mississippi Blues Trail and Freedom Trail. [7] The markers, shaped like open books, will be placed in strategic locations related to the author. The first two markers were unveiled at the 2018 Mississippi Book Festival; they are for Eudora Welty and Jesmyn Ward, which represents both past and present contributions of Mississippi authors. [8] Receipt and placement of trail markers will be determined by scholar recommendations. [9]

Journalism

Notable authors

Some highlighted Mississippi authors include: [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Faulkner</span> American writer (1897–1962)

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eudora Welty</span> American short story writer, novelist and photographer (1909–2001)

Eudora Alice Welty was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoknapatawpha County</span> Fictional Mississippi county created by William Faulkner

Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional Mississippi county created by the American author William Faulkner, largely based upon and inspired by Lafayette County, Mississippi, and its county seat of Oxford. Faulkner often referred to Yoknapatawpha County as "my apocryphal county".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Gothic</span> Subgenre of Gothic fiction

Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre of fiction, country music, film and television that are heavily influenced by Gothic elements and the American South. Common themes of Southern Gothic include storytelling of deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may be involved in hoodoo, decayed or derelict settings, grotesque situations, and other sinister events relating to or stemming from poverty, alienation, crime, or violence.

<i>Intruder in the Dust</i>

Intruder in the Dust is a 1948 crime novel written by American author William Faulkner. Taking place in Mississippi, it revolves around an African American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern United States literature</span> American literature about the Southern United States; literature by writers from that region

Southern United States literature consists of American literature written about the Southern United States or by writers from the region. Literature written about the American South first began during the colonial era, and developed significantly during and after the period of slavery in the United States. Traditional historiography of Southern United States literature emphasized a unifying history of the region; the significance of family in the South's culture, a sense of community and the role of the individual, justice, the dominance of Christianity and the positive and negative impacts of religion, racial tensions, social class and the usage of local dialects. However, in recent decades, the scholarship of the New Southern Studies has decentralized these conventional tropes in favor of a more geographically, politically, and ideologically expansive "South" or "Souths".

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The Southern Renaissance was the reinvigoration of American Southern literature in the 1920s and 1930s with the appearance of writers such as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Caroline Gordon, Margaret Mitchell, Katherine Anne Porter, Erskine Caldwell, Allen Tate, Tennessee Williams, Robert Penn Warren, and Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

<i>Oxford American</i> American literary magazine

The Oxford American is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the American South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Spencer (writer)</span> American writer (1921–2019)

Elizabeth Spencer was an American writer. Spencer's first novel, Fire in the Morning, was published in 1948. She wrote a total of nine novels, seven collections of short stories, a memoir, and a play. Her novella The Light in the Piazza (1960) was adapted for the screen in 1962 and transformed into a Broadway musical of the same name in 2005. She was a five-time recipient of the O. Henry Award for short fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Press of Mississippi</span> Academic publisher

The University Press of Mississippi (UPM), founded in 1970, is a university press that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi, making it one of the few university presses in the United States to have more than one affiliate university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eudora Welty House</span> United States historic place

The Eudora Welty House at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, Mississippi was the home of author Eudora Welty for nearly 80 years. It was built by her parents in 1925. In it she did all her writing, in an upstairs bedroom. Welty and her mother built and tended the garden over decades. The house was first declared a Mississippi Landmark in 2001, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2004. This was part of a raised awareness of the significance of authors and literary life in the United States.

Hubert Creekmore was an American poet and writer from the small Mississippi town of Water Valley. Creekmore was born into one of the oldest Southern families of the area but he would grow up to embody ideals very different from the conservative Southern principles by which he was raised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Monteleone</span>

Hotel Monteleone is a family-owned and operated hotel located at 214 Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. The hotel includes the only high-rise building in the interior French Quarter and is well known for its Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge, a rotating bar.

<i>One Writers Beginnings</i>

One Writer's Beginnings is a collection of autobiographical essays by Eudora Welty. The book is based on three lectures she delivered at Harvard University in April 1983, as part of the William E. Massey Sr. lecture series. The three essays are entitled: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. Well received by both critics and fans alike, One Writer's Beginnings was on The New York Times bestseller list for almost a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesmyn Ward</span> American writer

Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and a Professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones and won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. She also received a 2012 Alex Award for the story about familial love and community in facing Hurricane Katrina. She is the only woman and only African American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. All three of Ward's novels are set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage.

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<i>The Golden Apples</i>

The Golden Apples is a short story collection with seven stories written by Eudora Welty, first published in 1949. The stories form an interrelated cycle, which explores the economic and social plight of the fictional Morgana Mississippi: “Shower of Gold”; “June Recital”; “Sir Rabbit”; “Moon Lake”; “The Whole World Knows”; “Music from Spain” and “The Wanderers.”

<i>Where the Line Bleeds</i> 2008 debut novel by American writer Jesmyn Ward

Where the Line Bleeds is the debut novel by American writer Jesmyn Ward. It was published in 2008 by Scribner.

The Mississippi Writers Trail is a series of historical markers which celebrate the literary, social, historical, and cultural contributions of Mississippi's most acclaimed and influential writers. An advisory committee of state cultural agencies oversees the process of installing historical markers in places of significance to an author's life. To emphasize the literary focus of the trail, the markers are cast in the shape of an open book and display information about the author's life with the goal of educating the public about the legacy of Mississippi writers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Barnwell, Marion (1997). "Mississippi's Literary Tradition". A Place Called Mississippi . University Press of Mississippi. - Read online here from the Cleveland School District - Access date: 2019-09-20
  2. 1 2 3 4 Fouriezos, Nick. "Meet the Next Generation of Mississippi Writers". OZY. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  3. Weber, W. L. (1898). Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society.
  4. Dershem, Elsie (1921). An Outline of American State Literature. Universal Digital Library. World Company Publishers.
  5. "About the Press | University Press of Mississippi". www.upress.state.ms.us. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  6. "'Believe it!' campaign heads to classrooms". The Clarion Ledger. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  7. "The Mississippi Writers Trail". Mississippi State University Department of English. 2018-12-17. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  8. "Mississippi Writers Trail". Visit Mississippi. 2018-09-04. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  9. "First Chapter of Mississippi Writers Trail Begins - MDA". Mississippi Development Authority. 2018-08-16. Retrieved 2019-09-20.