Notice bibliographique
- Notice
Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Texte noté. Image fixe : sans médiation
Auteur(s) : Nagel, James (1940-....)
Titre(s) : Race and culture in New Orleans stories [Texte imprimé] : Kate Chopin, Grace King, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and George Washington Cable / James Nagel
Publication : Tuscaloosa : University Alabama press, 2013
Description matérielle : 1 vol. (XI-208 p.) : ill. ; 24 cm
Comprend : Preface ; Introduction: The Historical Context ; 1. George Washington Cable's Old
Creole Days ; 2. Grace King and the Cultural Background of Balcony Stories ; 3.
Alice Dunbar-Nelson and the New Orleans Story Cycle ; 4. Kate Chopin's Bayou Folk
; Conclusion : The Literary Legacy ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index.
Note(s) : Includes bibliographical references and index
"Race and Culture in New Orleans Stories posits that the Crescent City and the surrounding
Louisiana bayous were a logical setting for the literary exploration of crucial social
problems in America. Race and Culture in New Orleans Stories is a study of four volumes
of interrelated short stories set in New Orleans and the surrounding Louisiana bayous:
Kate Chopin's Bayou Folk; George Washington Cable's Old Creole Days; Grace King's
Balcony Stories; and Alice Dunbar-Nelson's The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories.
James Nagel argues that the conflicts and themes in these stories cannot be understood
without a knowledge of the unique historical context of the founding of Louisiana,
its four decades of rule by the Spanish, the Louisiana Purchase and the resulting
cultural transformations across the region, Napoleonic law, the Code Noir, the plaçage
tradition, the immigration of various ethnic and natural groups into the city, and
the effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction. All of these historical factors energize
and enrich the fiction of this important region. The literary context of these volumes
is also central to understanding their place in literary history. They are short-story
cycles--collections of short fiction that contain unifying settings, recurring characters
or character types, and central themes and motifs. They are also examples of the "local
color" tradition in fiction, a movement that has been much misunderstood. Nagel maintains
that "local color" literature was meant to be the highest form of American writing,
not the lowest, and its objective was to capture the locations, folkways, values,
dialects, conflicts, and ways of life in the various regions of the country in order
to show that the lives of common citizens were sufficiently important to be the subject
of serious literature. Finally, Nagel shows that New Orleans provided a profoundly
rich and complex setting for the literary exploration of some of the most crucial
social problems in America, including racial stratification, social caste, economic
exploitation, and gender roles, all of which were undergoing rapid transformation
at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth" ; "Race and
Culture in New Orleans Stories posits that the Crescent City and the surrounding Louisiana
bayous were a logical setting for the literary exploration of crucial social problems
in America"
Autre(s) forme(s) du titre :
- Titre de couverture : Race and culture in New Orleans stories : Kate Chopin, Grace
King, Alice Dunbar-Nelson & George Washington Cable
Sujet(s) : Littérature américaine -- La Nouvelle-Orléans (La., États-Unis)
Littérature américaine -- 19e siècle -- Thèmes, motifs
Littérature américaine -- 1900-1945 -- Thèmes, motifs
Relations interethniques -- Dans la littérature
La Nouvelle-Orléans (La., États-Unis) -- Dans la littérature
Identifiants, prix et caractéristiques : ISBN 9780817313388 (trade cloth). - ISBN 0817313389 (trade cloth). - ISBN 9780817387174
(erroné) (e book)
Identifiant de la notice : ark:/12148/cb43778344x
Notice n° :
FRBNF43778344
(notice reprise d'un réservoir extérieur)
