Authors by Era |
The Antebellum South - to 1861 The popular genre was the domestic novel in which the image of the southern woman ideal on a pedestal created from the labor of slaves was portrayed and promoted. Most expressions to the contrary of this impossible image were kept locked in personal diaries. |
This page lists authors in chronological order with a short description and a link to a site if available with biographical and bibliographical information. To quickly find a particular author, use the Edit-Find menu on your web browser and type in the author's last name. |
Eliza Lucas Pinckney - in 1739 at the age of 17, she managed her fathers plantation near Charleston, SC. Her letters suggest not only her ability to understand the management and economics of property but also her advanced ideas about marriage and slavery. http://www.sc.edu/uscpress/1997/3186.html Anne Newport Royall was considered the first American newspaperwoman and travelled around the country describing in a fiesty manner the language and culture of the people she met such as religious fanatics, Native Americans and slaves. She wrote objections to slavery but seems to have believed in a social hierarchy based on racial prejudices. http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~women/bibs/bibl-royall.html Fanny Kemble, a London-born actress, was one of the most vocal opponents of slavery in Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839 which gives detailed descriptions of the lives of women and slaves on the plantation. Sarah Grimke - along with her sister Angelina Grimke, was one of the most outspoken proponents of the rights of women and blacks. Her first publication argued the conflict that exists between Christianity and slavery. She continued to focus on the white woman's role in bringing about the end of slavery. http://www.greatwomen.org/profs/grimke_a.php Frances E. W. Harper was a well known black poet publishing anti-slavery poetry and lecturing on emancipation. She also focused on the need for education, high moral standards and women's rights. http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/fharper.htm Harriet Jacobs was the writer of the first complete slave narrative by a woman. It stresses the difference between the male and female slave story and is the only one to focus on sexual exploitation of slaves comparable to the physical exploitation. http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/HarrietJacobs.html |
This page was last updated on: April 19, 2001
The Civil War Period 1861-1865 Most of the women who wrote about slavery still confined their anti-slavery sentiments within diaries and correspondence. Publications were generally limited to slave narratives to promote the northern cause and idealized descriptions of life on the home front to promote the southern cause. |
Mary Boykin Chestnut kept a journal of her activities as the wife of man in high position in the Confederate administration. The first two versions of her journal published posthumously were heavily edited so as not to detract from the Confederate legend nor to offend any southern reputations. A complete edition was published in 1980 and has proven to be a valuable source of information on the inside workings of the Confederate administration and the problems that contributed to its defeat. metalab.unc.edu/docsouth/chesnut/menu.html Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave and purchased her freedom at age 30. She was the personal maid and seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln during the Civil War and the two women grew to be intimate friends. Her most famous publication describes the everyday lives of the Lincolns in the White House as well as the living conditions of southern blacks who fled to Washington D.C. during the war. voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/ElizabethHobbsKeckley.html |
The Postbellum Period 1866-1917 Reconstruction was a difficult time for all women in the south as they rebuilt their lives without husbands or brothers. White women wrote about their changing lives outside the home, but many were unwilling to relinquish the southern woman image and did not include black women in their new world of independence and voting rights. So many black women were writing from 1890 and 1920 that Henry Louis Gates refers to these years as "The Black Woman's Era." |
Katherine McDowell grew up on a farm in the antebellum and Civil War south and wrote about her experiences as well as stories about life in the south full of local color, although her black characters were written stereotypically. She also published under the pseudonym Sherwood Bonner. docsouth.unc.edu/bonner/bonner.html Grace King was raised in New Orleans during the Civil War and reconstruction. As a local colorist, her stories focused customs and habits of the exotic nature of New Orleans inhabited by independent women characters. Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis and moved to Louisiana after her marriage at age 20. Although her treatment of black characters is usually viewed as stereotypical and nostalgic, she continuously represents the white, southern culture as unnatural from a feminism and racism point of view. Her most famous work is "The Awakening", but she wrote many other good short stories. http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/ Julia Mood Peterkin was born and raised in South Carolina. She was raised by a black nurse who taught her the dialect, customs and attitudes of the Gullah community. She was one of the first white women writers to create black characters with depth beyond the stereotypes. www.converse.edu/qbowl/peterkin.html Alice Dunbar-Nelson grew up in black middle-class New Orleans, She wrote and published poetry as well as collected speeches and performance materials during the Harlem Renaissance in the twenties. http://www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/engl462/dnelson.html Ida Wells Barnett was born in Mississippi to slave parents and grew up to become an editor and part-owner of a newspaper. "Her painstaking investigative reporting singled her out as the person most responsible at the turn of the century for enlightening the nation and the world about the powerful connection between lynching, patriarchy, racism and cultural notions of white womanhood and black sexuality." Beverly, Guy-Sheffal ed. |
The Modern Period 1918 - 1960 The literature written during this period was called the Southern Rennaisance characterized by concern with how the past shapes the present, the lingering effects of slavery, a fascination with the grotesque, a focus on community and the struggle to separate from the myth of the Old South. Many southern blacks who wrote during this time were associated instead with the Harlem Renaissance. This period ended with the beginnings of the civil rights and feminist movements. |
Katherine Anne Porter was born and raised in Texas, but it was not until after she traveled to other parts of the country that she began to use her journalistic talents to re-examine her life and raise critiques of the southern white woman ideal in her writings. Zora Neale Hurston's writings reflect the all-black community of her birth, Eatonville, Florida (just outside of Orlando) and focus on the relationships that take place within that community rather than on interracial relations. A member of the Harlem Renaissance, she was critiqued for not depicting the harsher side of life and virtually disappeared for several decades. A black woman literature teacher gave new life to scholarship of Hurston's writings in 1971 with an essay in Ms.magazine; the teacher was Alice Walker. Flannery O'Connor, one of the most famous southern writers, was born in Georgia and returned home during a serious illness that redirected her writing focus to reflect and examine of the mystery of life in the south by using grotesque figures and situations to reflect the strict confines of normality and to bring her characters to their moment of truth and grace. ils.unc.edu/flannery/ Eudora Welty, another of the south's finest writers, also did not flourish in her writing career until she returned home to Mississippi. Her stories take the classic male myths and tales and rewrites them with a feminine presence, a photographic hand and an ironic sense of humor. http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/welty_eudora/ Lillian Smith was one of the most progressive and outspoken of white mid-twentieth century Southern writers on issues of social, and especially racial, justice. Her legacy of honest writing about the South includes Killers of the Dream, a book of brilliant essays that systematically identify, challenge and dismantle Southern racist traditions, customs and beliefs. The Southern Regional Council has honored her with the Lillian Smith award, an annual award for southern fiction. http://www.src.w1.com/com-smith.html |
The Contemporary Period 1961 - present The South has now assimilated into the United States culture and its previously unique themes are now seen as universal. Contemporary writers are noted to have new elements that account for their appeal: "A strong narrative voice. A pervasive sense of humor...Deep involvement in place...A sense of impending loss. Celebration of eccentricity. Themes of racial guilt and of human endurance." It also captures "creation of community - the inadequacies of family bonds and local traditions cause them to create communities of women bound by common concerns, desires, even eccentricities." (Weaks & Perry p. 296.) |
Minnie Bruce Pratt, native Alabaman, writes award-winning poetry and prose on the subjects of racism, feminism and gender issues. Her essay, "Identity: Skin Blood Heart" tells of her journey from traditional southern wife and mother in the 'unknowing majority' through efforts at grass-roots organizing, examination of the town of her childhood, the protection with a price it afforded and other realizations to a hopeful future. http://www.mbpratt.org bell hooks, a poet and scholar from Kentucky, has devoted her life to trying to change the negative repercussions of what she terms the 'white supremist capitalist patriarchy' that structures this society. Her writings urge an end to the degradation and exploitation of black women, arguing that this is an intregal step in alleviating white supremacy. Margaret Walker, a poet, novelist and essayist was the first African-American to win the Yale Younger Poets award. Her novel, Jubilee, gives a historical account of the Civil War told from the perspective of a slave. http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/alexander_margaret_walker/ Sonia Sanchez is a poet/playwright/activist from Alabama strongly influenced by black speech and music. Her experimential poetry attacks the race relations issues she observes and also celebrates the black community Alice Walker continues to gain recognition for her diverse writings which have included poetry, novels, nonfiction and essays. Born in Georgia to sharecropper parents, Walker is also a civil rights activist; her novel Meridian focuses on the civil rights movement during the 1960's. Mab Segrest grew up during the civil rights movement in Alabama and has written and collected essays on the South, women and America. Her essay "Southern Women Writing: Toward a Literature of Wholeness" looks at the literature of some earlier writers such as Flannery O'Connor and Carson McCullers and the literature of the grotesque to examine the boundaries of the rigid Southern way of life. Linda Hogan, part Chickasaw, grew up in Oklahoma. She is a poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist whose work focuses on environmental issues and relationship to the land. Her autobiographical essay "The Two Lives" searches out her ancestors' history and the lingering effects of classism and racism on her community. http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/linda/ |
QuickLinks to Eras to 1861 1861-1865 1866-1917 1918 - 1960 1961 - present |
The content for this page was primarily drawn from Southern Women's Writing, Colonial to Contemporary edited by Mary Louise Weaks & Carolyn Perry as well as other readings required by the class, Southern Women Writers, Loyola University New Orleans, Dr. S. Dietzel, Spring, 2001 |
