Regionalism

The Realism of the South

How it started

Grass Roots movement: started from the people not in power and moved up

Quality based on number of books sold Develops limited celebrity More people write to get rich Driven by audience not by writers.

Published in the magazines and periodicals

Features

Rural settings (Local Color) Realism is the Urban North Regionalism is in the Rural South Local Color: Painting of the farming of the South

Landscape and people exoticized People thought they were an odd bunch and a weird

location Readership not in the same class as the characters.

Fairy Tale Ideology: Ideals made very clear Characters almost over-the-top in their actions (Think

Ugly Step Sisters in Cinderella).

Features

Use of dialect Y’all comin’ back soon Ah hope! Written to match phonetics (sounds) of spoken word

Attention to Diegesis: A fictional world for the text to take place in. Homodiegetic: first person (I, me etc.) where the character is a

part of the narrative Heterodiegetic: Keeping it at arms length. The Regionalists did

this. Narrative space

Person telling the story generally separated some how from the people of the story.

Laugh at characters, believe narrator

Zora Neale Hurston

Childhood Born in Alabama As a toddler, family moves to Eatonville Florida

All black town Setting of her later stories "a city of five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred

brown skins, three hundred good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools, and no jailhouse."

At age 13 mom dies: turns life around Does not get along with stepmom Runs away with a theater troupe

Zora Neale Hurston

After Graduation Does graduate from college Moves to Harlem, New York

Part of Harlem Renaissance- major cultural movement Works on grants from the government during the depression

Writing: Always celebrates blackness

Based in communities of all black people Based in her own childhood

Records black culture Voodoo to mystic Folk culture important, folk dialect

William Faulkner

Born in the South Rich family Lived whole life in Mississippi

Growing up Attended Ole Miss (a school with racial issues) but

dropped out Wanted to join military in US, but was too short,

joined the British Air Force

William Faulkner

Writing Set stories in Yoknapatawpha county Poor Southern Whites (but he was not poor) Many of his characters were backwards in their beliefs

and morals Known for his incredibly long and descriptive

sentences Other ventures:

Hollywood Screenwriter for the money Fierce critic of others’ writing

Rap- The Local Color of Today? Similarities:

Differences: