Southern Aberrations: Writers of the American South and the Problems of Regionalism (Southern Literary Studies) - Softcover

In this major reassessment of the American South and its literature, Richard Gray explores the idea of regionalism by focusing on those writers whose relationship with the South has been particularly problematical. Asking just what it means to belong to a place, a region--and, more specifically, what it implies for certain Americans to call themselves Southerners--he analyzes conflicting notions of the South that have evolved over the past two centuries. In the process, Gray--one of the leading scholars in the field of Southern studies--offers a provocative new reading of many Southern writers and of the whole notion of a Southern tradition.

Richard Gray is professor of literature at the University of Essex and editor of the Journal of American Studies. His books include Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region, The Literature of Memory: Modern Writers of the American South, and The Life of William Faulkner: A Critical Biography.