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 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adrienne Battey Agrarians American Anne Firor Scott Archives behavior bildungsroman Cabell Carnegie Library characters Charlton Cunningham charming consciousness convention critics culture daughter Davidson Dead Lovers death Despite Donald Davidson Ellen Glasgow Faithful Lovers Faraday's feeling female feminine feminist fiction Folder Frances Newman Papers Frances Newman Tells Gabriella Georgia Institute girl Gold-Fish Bowl Hagar Hansell Baugh Hard-Boiled Virgin heroine husband ideal ideas Information Center Institute of Technology Isabel Paterson Isabel Ramsay Johnston Katharine Faraday Katharine's Katherine Mansfield Lamar Trotti librarian Library and Information literary Liveright lives Lovers Are Faithful lynchings male marriage marriage plot married Mary Johnston Mencken mind mother narrative narrator never novel novelist plot novels realizes reveal Review roles Romantic Comedians satire sexual sister social South Southern Belle southern lady southern literature southern women thoughts tion Unpublished letter Virginia white southern white women wife womanhood women writers Woolf writing wrote York
References to this book
The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature Hugh Ruppersburg,John C. Inscoe Limited preview - 2011 |