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43-718: Prior to this renaissance, white Southern writers tended to focus on historical romances about the " Lost Cause " of the Confederate States of America . This writing glorified the heroism of the Confederate army and civilian population during the Civil War and the supposedly idyllic culture that existed in the South before the war (known as the Antebellum South ). The belief in the heroism and morality of

86-715: A Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961), along with many others. Historical romance Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Byron helped popularize in the early 19th century. Viking books feature warriors during the Dark Ages or Middle Ages . Heroes in Viking romances are stereotypically masculine men who are later "tamed" by their heroines. Most heroes are described as "tall, blonde, and strikingly handsome." Using

129-669: A certain extent to the mass-market trends. Booksellers and large merchandisers are selling fewer mass market paperbacks, preferring trade paperbacks or hardcovers, which prevent historical romances from being sold in some price clubs and other mass merchandise outlets. In 2001, historical romance reached a 10-year high as 778 were published. By 2004, that number had dropped to 486, which was still 20% of all romance novels published. Kensington Books claims that they are receiving fewer submissions of historical novels, and that their previously published authors are switiching to contemporary. Fugitives (poets) The Fugitives , also known as

172-447: A major period of modern Southern literature began. Their poetry was formal and featured traditional prosody and concrete imagery often from experiences of the rural south . The group has some overlap with two later movements: Southern Agrarians and New Criticism . About 1920, a group consisting of some influential teachers of literature at Vanderbilt, a few townies , and some students began meeting on alternate Saturday nights at

215-630: A sense of identity in a region where family, religion, and community were more highly valued than one's personal and social life. The final theme that the renaissance writers approached was the South's troubled history in regards to racial issues. Because of these writers' distance from the Civil War and slavery, they were able to bring more objectivity to writings about the South. They also brought new modernistic techniques such as stream of consciousness and complex narrative techniques to their works (as Faulkner did in his novel As I Lay Dying ). Among

258-470: A way of life that is different from the norm. By the end of the novel, however, the problems are surmounted. The heroes of these novels are often fighting to control their darker desires. In many cases, the hero or heroine is captured and then falls in love with a member of the tribe. The tribe is always depicted as civilized, not consisting of savages, and misunderstood. When surveyed about their reasons for reading Native American romances, many readers cite

301-649: Is almost always a knight who first learns to respect her and her uncommon ideas and then falls in love. Heroes are always strong and dominant, and the heroine, despite the gains she has made, is usually still in a subordinate position. However, that position is her choice, made "for the sake of and with protection from an adoring lover, whose main purpose in life is to fulfill his beloved's wishes." Tudor romances are set in England between 1485 and 1558. Elizabethan romances are set in England between 1558 and 1603, during

344-481: Is integral to the story." These romances "[emphasize] instinct, creativity, freedom, and the longing to escape from the strictures of society to return to nature." Members of Native American tribes who appear in the books are usually depicted as "exotic figures" who "[possess] a freedom to be admired and envied." Often the Native protagonist is struggling against racial prejudice and incurs hardships trying to maintain

387-488: Is now considered offensive to many in the romance industry. In this new style of historical romance, heroines were independent and strong-willed and were often paired with heroes who evolved into caring and compassionate men who truly admired the women they loved. This was in contrast to the contemporary romances published during this time, which were often characterized by weak females who fell in love with overbearing alpha males . Although these heroines had active roles in

430-581: Is often traced back to the activities of " The Fugitives ", a group of poets and critics who were based at Vanderbilt University in Nashville , Tennessee , just after the First World War. The group included John Crowe Ransom , Donald Davidson , Allen Tate , Robert Penn Warren , Laura Riding and others. Together they created the magazine The Fugitive (1922–1925), so named because the editors announced that they fled "from nothing faster than from

473-534: The British Raj in this period rather than England itself. Pirate novels feature a male or female who is sailing, or thought to be sailing, as a pirate or privateer on the high seas. According to Ryan Kate, heroes are the "ultimate bad boys," who "dominate all for the sake of wealth and freedom." The heroine is usually captured by the hero in an early part of the novel, and then is forced to succumb to his wishes; eventually she falls in love with her captor. On

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516-536: The Fugitive Poets , is the name given to a group of poets and literary scholars at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee , who published a literary magazine from 1922 to 1925 called The Fugitive . The group, primarily driven by Robert Penn Warren , John Crowe Ransom , Donald Davidson , and Allen Tate , formed a major school of twentieth century poetry in the United States. With it,

559-700: The Reconstruction era . They may be set in the Confederacy or the Union . Western novels are set in the frontier of the United States, Canada , or Australia . Unlike Westerns , where women are often marginalized, the Western romance focuses on the experiences of the female. Heroes in these novels seek adventure and are forced to conquer the unknown. They are often loners, slightly uncivilized, and "earthy." Their heroines are often forced to travel to

602-478: The "Avon originals" had sold a combined 8 million copies. The following year over 150 historical romance novels, many of them paperback originals, were published, selling over 40 million copies. Unlike Woodiwiss, Rogers's novels featured couples who travelled the world, usually were separated for a time, and had multiple partners within the book. The success of these novels prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking

645-439: The 1990s the genre began to focus more on humor, as Julie Garwood began introducing humorous elements and characters into her historical romances. Historical romance novels are rarely published in hardcover, with fewer than 15 receiving that status each year. The contemporary market usually sees 4 to 5 times that many hardcovers. Because historical romances are primarily published in mass-market format, their fortunes are tied to

688-569: The Agrarian Tradition (1930), written by authors and critics from the Southern Renaissance who came to be known as Southern Agrarians . Many Southern writers of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s were inspired by the writers of the Southern Renaissance, including Reynolds Price , James Dickey , Walker Percy , Eudora Welty , Flannery O'Connor , John Kennedy Toole , Carson McCullers , and Harper Lee (whose novel To Kill

731-463: The Bozart," Mencken famously criticized the South as the most intellectually barren region in the U.S., asserting that its cultural life had been in decline since the Civil War. The Southern Renaissance sought to counter these views. This created a storm of protest from within conservative circles in the South. However, many emerging Southern writers who were already highly critical of contemporary life in

774-598: The Fugitives were the critic Cleanth Brooks and the poet Laura Riding . The Fugitives partly overlapped with a later group, also associated with Vanderbilt, called the Agrarians . Some of the Fugitives were part of the latter group. Another group known as the New Critics , was a later school that emerged from the Fugitives, named for Ransom's 1941 book, The New Criticism . The first comprehensive collection of

817-546: The Fugitives' poetry was published by William C. Pratt, Professor of English at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio . Following that, a second anthology was subsequently created after many of the major works were revised. A third anthology, The Fugitive poets : Modern Southern Poetry in Perspective was published in 1991 by Pratt and included additional works by the original poets. This poetry -related article

860-403: The South were emboldened by Mencken's essay. On the other hand, Mencken's subsequent bitter attacks on aspects of Southern culture that they valued amazed and horrified them. In response to the attacks of Mencken and his imitators, Southern writers were provoked to a reassertion of Southern uniqueness and a deeper exploration of the theme of Southern identity. The start of the Southern Renaissance

903-528: The South's "Lost Cause" was a driving force in Southern literature between the Civil War and World War I . The Southern Renaissance changed this by addressing three major themes in their works. The first was the burden of history in a place where many people still remembered slavery , Reconstruction , and a devastating military defeat. The second theme was to focus on the South's conservative culture, specifically on how an individual could exist without losing

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946-688: The United States between 1880 and 1920, usually in a small town or in the Midwest . One of the first popular historical romances appeared in 1921, when Georgette Heyer published The Black Moth , which is set in 1751. It was not until 1935 that she wrote the first of her signature Regency novels, set around the English Regency period (1811–1820), when the Prince Regent ruled England in place of his ill father, George III . Heyer's Regency novels were inspired by Jane Austen 's novels of

989-454: The Viking culture allows novels set in these time periods to include some travel, as the Vikings were "adventurers, founding and conquering colonies all over the globe." In a 1997 poll of over 200 readers of Viking romances, Johanna Lindsey 's Fires of Winter was considered the best of the subgenre. The subgenre has fallen out of style, and few novels in this vein have been published since

1032-501: The category romances, was distributed in drug stores and other mass-market merchandising outlets. The novel went on to sell 2.35 million copies. Avon followed its release with the 1974 publication of Woodiwiss's second novel, The Wolf and the Dove and two novels by newcomer Rosemary Rogers . One of Rogers's novels, Dark Fires sold two million copies in its first three months of release, and, by 1975, Publishers Weekly had reported that

1075-402: The cultural and intellectual mediocrity of the men who held power in the South. In 1903, Basset, an academic at Trinity College (later Duke University ) angered many influential white Southerners when he called African-American leader Booker T. Washington "the greatest man, save General Lee, born in the South in a hundred years." The most comprehensive and outspoken criticisms directed against

1118-495: The desire to learn about the beliefs, customs and culture of the Native American tribes. The novels within this subgenre are generally not limited to a specific tribe, location, or time period. Readers appreciate that native tribes "have a whole different way of life, a different way of thinking and a different way of looking at things". In many cases, the tribe's love of nature is highlighted. Americana novels are set in

1161-577: The era that preceded it. From the 1880s onwards, a few white Southern authors, such as George Washington Cable and Mark Twain (considered a Southern writer because he grew up in the slave state of Missouri and set many of his writings in the South) challenged readers by pointing out the exploitation of blacks and ridiculing other Southern conventions of the time. In the 1890s, the writings of journalist Walter Hines Page and academics William Peterfield Trent and John Spencer Bassett severely criticized

1204-501: The frontier by events outside their control. These women must learn to survive in a man's world, and, by the end of the novel, have conquered their fears with love. In many cases the couple must face a level of personal danger, and, upon surmounting their troubles, are able to forge a strong relationship for the future. Native American novels could also fall into the Western subgenre, but always feature Native American protagonists , historically described as "Red Indians", whose "heritage

1247-509: The high-caste Brahmins of the Old South." The emergence of the Southern Renaissance as a literary and cultural movement has also been seen as a consequence of the opening up of the predominantly rural South to outside influences due to the industrial expansion that took place in the region during and after the First World War. Southern opposition to industrialization was expressed in the famous essay collection I'll Take My Stand: The South and

1290-553: The home of James Marshall Frank and his brother-in-law Sidney Mttron Hirsch on Whitland Avenue in Nashville. They met as a poetry workshop with no formal connection with the university. After a couple of years, Hirsch felt their poetry was good enough to publish. According to author Louise Cowan, "...half-seriously Alec Stevenson suggested as a title " The Fugitive " after a poem of Hirsch's which had been read and discussed at an earlier meeting." Allen Tate stated, "...a Fugitive

1333-463: The late 18th and early 19th century. Because Heyer's writing was set in the midst of events that had occurred over 100 years previously, she included authentic period detail in order for her readers to understand. Where Heyer referred to historical events, it was as background detail to set the period, and did not usually play a key role in the narrative. Heyer's characters often contained more modern-day sensibilities, and more conventional characters in

Southern Renaissance - Misplaced Pages Continue

1376-559: The main creators and guardians of the Southern literary tradition. The Southern Renaissance was the first significant literary movement in the Southern United States that responded to longstanding critiques of the region's intellectual and cultural stagnation. These critiques came from both within the Southern literary tradition and from external commentators, most notably H. L. Mencken . In his 1917 essay "The Sahara of

1419-664: The main influences at work in the American Literary Renaissance of the twentieth century. The group was noted for the number of its members whose works were recognized with a permanent place in the literary canon. Among the most notable Fugitives were John Crowe Ransom , Allen Tate , Merrill Moore , Donald Davidson , William Ridley Wills , and Robert Penn Warren . Other members include Sidney Mttron Hirsch , Stanley P. Johnson, James M. Frank, Jesse Ely Wills , Walter Clyde Curry , Alec B. Stevenson, William Yandell Elliott , and William Frierson. Two of

1462-432: The members (Warren and Tate) later became United States Poets Laureate . In "The Briar Patch", Robert Penn Warren provided a look at the life of an exploited black person in urban America. "The Briar Patch" was a defense both of segregation, and of the doctrine of "separate but equal," enshrined by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). (Warren later recanted the views expressed in "The Briar Patch".) Less closely associated with

1505-416: The mid-1990s. Medieval romances are typically set between 938 and 1485. Women in the medieval time periods were often considered as no more than property who were forced to live at the mercy of their father, guardian, or the king. Always a lady , the heroine must use her wits and will and find a husband who will accept her need to be independent, yet still protect her from the dangers of the times. The hero

1548-592: The monogamous relationship between a helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. The covers of these novels tended to feature scantily clad women being grabbed by the hero, and caused the novels to be referred to as "bodice-rippers." A Wall St. Journal article in 1980 referred to these bodice rippers as "publishing's answer to the Big Mac: They are juicy, cheap, predictable, and devoured in stupifying quantities by legions of loyal fans." The term bodice-ripper

1591-622: The novels would point out the heroine's eccentricities, such as wanting to marry for love. The modern romance genre was born in America 1972 with Avon's publication of Kathleen Woodiwiss 's The Flame and the Flower , the first romance novel "to [follow] the principals into the bedroom." Aside from its content, the book was revolutionary in that it was one of the first single-title romance novels to be published as an original paperback , rather than being first published in hardcover , and, like

1634-480: The plot, they were "passive in relationships with the heroes", Across the genre, heroines during this time were usually aged 16–21, with the heroes slightly older, usually around 30. The women were virgins , while the men were not, and both members of the couple were described as beautiful. In the late 1980s, historical romance dominated the romance genre. The most popular of the historical romances were those that featured warriors, knights, pirates, and cowboys . In

1677-490: The rarer occasions where the heroine is the pirate, the book often focuses on her struggle to maintain her freedom of choice while living the life of a man. Regardless of the sex of the pirate, much of the action in the book takes place at sea. Colonial United States novels are all set in that country between 1630 and 1798. Civil War novels place their characters within the events of the American Civil War and

1720-499: The tenets of the "Lost Cause" before the First World War were put forth by African-American writers who grew up in the South, most famously by Charles W. Chesnutt in his novels The House Behind the Cedars (1900) and The Marrow of Tradition (1901). However, before the 1970s, African-American authors from the South were not considered part of Southern literature by the white and mostly male authors and critics who considered themselves

1763-567: The time of Elizabeth I . Stuart romances are set between 1603 and 1714 in England. Georgian romances are set between 1714 and 1811 in England. Regency romances are set between 1811 and 1820 in England. Victorian romances are set in England between 1832 and 1901, beginning with the Reform Act 1832 and including the reign of Queen Victoria . Novels set during this period but in a fictional country may be Ruritanian novels such as those by Beatrice Heron-Maxwell. M.M. Kaye focuses on

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1806-600: The writers of the Southern Renaissance, William Faulkner is arguably the most influential and famous. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. The Southern Renaissance in the 1920s had been preceded by a long period after the Civil War during which Southern literature was dominated by writers who supported the Lost Cause. Yet the critical spirit that characterized the Southern Renaissance did have roots in

1849-622: Was quite simply a Poet: the Wanderer, or even the Wandering Jew , the Outcast, the man who carries the secret wisdom around the world". They published a small literary magazine, The Fugitive (1922–1925), which showcased their works using noms de plume at first. Although its publication history was brief, The Fugitive is considered to be one of the most influential journals in the history of American letters. The Fugitives embodied all

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