I'd like to spend half the class (about) having you report informally about what you're doing project-wise, and how the work is going. I'll probably just do this by going around the room (which direction will be by flip of a coin or something) and asking you for word or two. Any of you who are working in teams may want to get together and appoint someone to speak for the rest of you. (When you do, identify the team members as part of your informal report).
Then,
Review, in The American South, a History,
e sections on the Southern Literary Renaissance and Southern Regionalism pp. 626-633.
If the South couldn't be what it had been, how could it be something, new, authentic, faithful to its heritage, and yet reconciled to national ideals? The essays and stories address this issue directly or indirectly.
Cleanth Brooks in "The Enduring Faith," published in Why the South Will Survive, writes that
contrary to other Americans, the collective experience of Southerners includes decades of scarcity and poverty rather than of abundance; of guilt rather than innocence; of frustration and defeat rather than of unfailing victory and success. Such a regional experience has made Southerners skeptical with regard to the myths that undergird American nationalism. The Southerners' "historic" experience has given them a better grasp on reality, a heightened suspicion of all utopian schemes, and an antidote to moral complacency. (208)
Chapter 25, the section on the Depression through the section on Southern Agriculture pp. 639-654
The photo montage which has formed the background of the web pages for this course was created from one of the most remarkable collection of photographs I've seen. The Unlikely source was the Department of Agriculture during the depression years of the 1930s. Many of the United States' finest photographers worked at documenting the effects of the depression, not only on the South, but on all regions of the country. Clicking on the images below will take you to the websites which contain some of these images. Browse a while and let your senses respond to what you see. Do this a couple of times for the greatest reward: first, before you read today's assigned text, and then, again, afterwards.