Frances Newman: Southern Satirist and Literary RebelThis first biographical and literary assessment of Frances Newman highlights one of the most experimental writers of the Southern Renaissance Frances Newman was born into a prominent Atlanta family and was educated at private schools in the South and the Northeast. Her first novel, The Hard-Boiled Virgin, was hailed by James Branch Cabell as “the most brilliant, the most candid, the most civilized, and the most profound yet written by any American woman.” Cabell and H. L. Mencken became Newman’s literary mentors and loyally supported her satire of southern culture, which revealed the racism, class prejudice, and religious intolerance that reinforced the idealized image of the white southern lady. Writing within a nearly forgotten feminist tradition of southern women’s fiction, Newman portrayed the widely acclaimed social change in the early part of the century in the South as superficial rather than substantial, with its continued restrictive roles for women in courtship and marriage and limited educational and career opportunities. Barbara Wade explores Newman’s place in the feminist literary tradition by comparing her novels with those of her contemporaries Ellen Glasgow, Mary Johnston, and Isa Glenn. Wade draws from Newman’s personal correspondence and newspaper articles to reveal a vibrant, independent woman who simultaneously defied and was influenced by the traditional southern society she satirized in her writing. |
Contents
Living as a Southern Lady and Literary Rebel | 1 |
Demythologizing the Southern Lady | 26 |
Questioning Social Change | 59 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American Anne appearance Atlanta become begins behavior Bowl called Center characters Charlton complete concern considered continued convention critics culture daughter Dead Lovers death desire Despite discussed especially Evelyn experience explained Faithful Lovers fears feeling felt female feminist fiction Frances Newman Georgia girl Glasgow Hard-Boiled Virgin heroine husband ideal ideas important Institute interest involved Isabel Katharine Faraday Katharine's later learned less Letters Library literary literature lives looking Lovers Are Faithful male marriage married mind Miss mother narrative narrator never notes novel novelist play political position published question realizes reveal Review roles satire seen sense sexual social society South southern lady southern women story Technology Tells thoughts tion tradition University values Virginia wanted wife woman womanhood women women writers writing wrote York young
References to this book
The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature Hugh Ruppersburg,John C. Inscoe Limited preview - 2011 |