Songs of the Reconstructing South — Building Literary Louisiana, 1865-1945

The South has a rich cultural legacy and that of Louisiana is especially strong and diverse. Despite its similarities with the rest of the South, Louisiana has a distinct cultural identity rooted in the colonial impulses of France and Spain, the evolution of gender roles, the importance of religion, and the dramatic shift in racial politics after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. This book explores the influences at work on Louisiana writers and those writing about Louisiana from the end of the Civil War through World War II. Included are chapters on such writers as Lafcadio Hearn, Kate Chopin, Tennessee Williams, and William Faulkner. These are grouped in sections devoted to three of the broadest influences on writers of the era: women, work, and culture during Reconstruction; the impact of Modernism; and issues of race and class.

SUZANNE DISHEROON- GREEN is Assistant Professor of American Literature at Northwestern State University. Her previous books include Kate Chopin: An Annotated Bibliography of Critical Works (Greenwood, 1999), Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana (Greenwood, 2001), and At Fault by Kate Chopin: A Scholarly Edition with Background Readings (2001).LISA ABNEY is Director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern State University. She coedited Songs of the New South: Writing Contemporary Louisiana (Greenwood, 2001) and has served as guest editor for Southern Studies. She is also the general editor of Louisiana Folklife.