Imperialism in Southern Literature: From Monticello to Mauritius
Introduction
The works collected here represent the efforts to better explain imperialism and any of its forms –colonialism, empire, and hegemony- within the canon of Southern literature starting from Thomas Jefferson and continuing to present-day. One of the goals of this annotated bibliography is to explain the onset of empire in Southern literature to better understand its lasting potency on readers and American culture.
The order of the sources is a quasi-chronology that starts with Thomas Jefferson and his views on slavery and Haiti. Haiti is an ever-present topic as it emerges over a hundred years after the revolution when the United States devises a scheme to invade and reclaim the “lost” nation. One cannot speak of Haiti in this context and not mention William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and an accompanying analysis of Thomas Sutpen. Haiti and Sutpen are inextricably linked and very effective in explaining empire in literature. Creating figures integral to a region’s myth evokes the image of the Cavalier, or Southern gentlemen, explored as a baseline to examine an archetype that still exists today and explain the method of mythmaking in American culture.
As the 20th century reached its midpoint, Southern literature began to change. Social and cultural events began to impact the writers in this field. Black writers began to speak for Black audiences and White writers eschewed some of their former, honest portrayals in exchange for more romanticized, veneered styling. Also, global perspectives began to emerge and traditional Southern writing began to be interpreted and written by authors born outside of Dixie. We see fibers of Southern culture now dominating the fabric of the U.S. culture, an evolution of ideals from regional to national and, finally, global. Finally, in an effort to give William Faulkner a final word, I included a collection of essays from writers from myriad of countries who attended the Faulkner Conference twenty years after his death. This was an opportunity to illustrate his work as a form of imperialism on those attempting to translate his work into dozens of languages. Needless to say, the residual of empire in any form is difficult to escape and Faulkner’s use of syntax, narration, and colloquialisms have proven to be a cumbersome struggle. As the varied publication dates indicate, Faulkner and his imperialism continues to draw scholarly interest despite the challenges the reader and translator encounter.
Jefferson, Thomas. Notes On The State Of Virginia. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. Print.
Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia discusses commerce, race, religion, science and other topics tinged with paradoxical insight: Enlightenment ideals supported and countered by Jefferson throughout the book creating a duality as woven into the fabric of the U.S. and felt by generations of Americans, particularly Southerners. Using race as a microcosmic example, the author refutes the world-renown French historian, Comte de Buffon, and his claims of the New World producing inferior beings (i.e. Native Americans), on the one hand, but confers with his insight by referring to them as “barbarians” en route to civilization. Jefferson, a very studious and reserved individual, uses this book as a platform for his ideas and shows the contradictions of the United States in this work: progressive versus protective, emancipation versus bondage, liberal versus conservative, enlightened versus archaic. Notes on the State of Virginia was intended for the global collegues of Thomas Jefferson and his peers within the aristocratic Southern plantocracy explaining the unique challenges faced by a country that was free, but a citizenry that was not. Presently, it stands to be revisited as the gestation of Southern literature and plantocratic ideals.
Scheer, Arthur. “Jefferson’s “Cannibals” Revisited: A Closer Look At His Notorious Phrase.” Journal Of Southern History 77.2 (2011): 251-282. Print.
Arthur Scherr in his piece entitled “Jefferson’s “Cannibals” Revisited: A Closer Look at his Notorious Phrase” examines Thomas Jefferson’s application of the phrase “cannibal” to depict the barbarism of the slave revolt in Haiti as well as to depict the self-serving pursuit of greed by his American and European contemporaries. The writer gives examples of Jefferson appropriating Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire, Montaignes and Diderot and their usage of the word to apply to natives and Black slaves consuming their vanquished after battle. The author uses this article to illustrate Jefferson’s fear of a similar slave revolt in the U.S. South occurring in addition to marking him as the first president to refer to Black Americans as unequal, less-than-human. Scherr portrays Thomas Jefferson as someone globally revered and the impact of his thoughts and anxieties became affixed to the Southern population at large. Understanding this in the context of his affect on the evolution Southern literature is essential when considering subsequent author’s views on slavery, literature, and the duality –successful plantocracy and emancipated nation- that came to symbolize Haiti.
Gerster, Patrick and Nicholas Cords, ed. Myth And Southern History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989. Print.
Patrick Gester and Nicholas Cords explain the creation of Southern myths and how duality –forward versus backward looking, chivalry versus barbarism, agrarian versus industrialism- has shaped the Southern landscape –politically, socially, and culturally- in Myth and Southern History. The editors use a collection of essays to illustrate how Thomas Jefferson and his contradictions –images of “agrarian democracy” coupled with conservative, state rights- contributed to later literary works by Robert Penn Warren and William Faulkner, which illustrate the complexities of the South. Gerster and Cords allow their work to be a useful piece in understanding how ideas like empire can be perpetuated in a regional consciousness without being easily tangible. The editors compiled this collection of essays for an audience interested in seeing how a region can evolve from simple, colonial beginnings into a hegemon with overarching influence on politics, the citizenry, and art.
Taylor, William Robert. Cavalier And Yankee: The Old South and American National Character. New York: G. Braziller, 1961. Print.
William Robert Taylor in Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character discusses the creation of myth in romanticized versions of the Cavalier and Southern life: white plantations, “good blood,” and tradition. The author focuses on U.S. literature and correspondences pre-dating the Civil War from writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Writ and George Tucker to letters from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Taylor showcases the Southern myth of plantation life and Southern aristocracy as formulated by those of a yeoman class and outsiders in search –and need- of romanticizing American culture and creating historical fiction in the process. Readers will benefit from William Robert Taylor’s insight into the world of the Southern, genteel aristocracy as created by those very much apart from the plantocracy in which they were writing. Understanding the connection to Southern myth making is useful in studying the trajectory of Southern literature in a post-Civil War climate.
Holman, C. Hugh. The Roots Of Southern Writing: Essays On The Literature Of The American South. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1972. Print.
Author Hugh Holman compiled a collection of seventeen essays discussing the Southern experience and the paradox –genteel manners and violence, self-determination and aristocracy, extreme pain and hopeful optimism- and how this body of literature has come to represent a large part of the American ideal from a regional level to a national one. Holman uses essays on writers ranging from the letters of William Gilmore Simms to the creation of the nation-state that is William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County to illustrate how Southern writers created the archetypal American male in their writing, who is a true Cavalier and gentlemen replete with inequities of racial intolerance and barbarism. The editor’s strategic use of these essays describes how the South and not the Northeast came to define America through its literature as the 19th century came to a close. Nationalism and empire have more roots in Southern literature than other regions and these images make an enduring impact on the world’s view of the U.S. Holman’s collection of essays is comprised for readers who are seeking to learn more about the duality that exists in Southern literature and understand the brutal honesty championed by its writers vividly describes the American, not only Southern, social and political climate.
Wells, Jeremy. Romances of the White Man’s Burden: Race, Empire, and the Plantation in American Literature, 1880-1936. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2011. Print.
Jeremy Wells in his book entitled Romances of the White Man’s Burder: Race, Empire, and the Plantation in American Literature discusses the prominence of Southern literature during the end of the 19th century continuing through the Civil Rights area by explaining the significance of plantation life –etiquette, race relations, glorious past, a troubled future. Wells discusses the works Henry Adams, Thomas Dixon Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois and William Faulkner to show the “fantasy and myth” of the Southern plantation after its heyday and during the period of Jim Crow segregation. The author appropriates the Rudyard Kipling poem “The White Man’s Burden” with its suggested connection to plantation representing a nostalgic view of the past with present imperialistic pursuits and new U.S. nationalism. The duality of maintaining one’s Whiteness while caring for the burden that is the Black population is a quandary. Those looking for Southern proponents –or opponents- of the plantation ideal in literature will find valuable information on imperialistic pursuits from writers who laid the groundwork years before Faulkner.
Guterl, Matthew Pratt. American Mediterranean: Southern Slaveholders in the Age Of Emancipation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. Print.
Matthew Pratt Guterl’s book, American Mediterranean, examines the connected nature of plantocracies of the U.S. South and Caribbean countries, specifically Haiti and Cuba. The author connects fact and fiction with a poignant introduction using the character of Thomas Sutpen from William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! by illustrating Sutpen’s desire to master the African slave so integral in building his Sutpen Hundred. Guterl uses historical documents showing the interconnectedness of the regions by travel and intermarriage and the Southern aristocracy’s refusal to surrender a lifestyle, a tradition so ingrained in their culture, wealth by way of chattel slavery. The Civil War forced Southerners to find a different system of cultivating cheap land with cheap labor and the answers resided in the island nations of the Caribbean. The author writes this for readers seeking a transnational historical understanding of plantocracy culture and the sharing of ideas of empire between nations.
Hagood, Taylor. Faulkner’s Imperialism: Space, Place, and the Materiality of Myth. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008. Print.
Taylor Hagood suggests that William Faulkner uses aspects of empire –miscegenation, landscape domination, and othering- as dominant themes throughout his various works spanning the author’s career. The influence of New Orleans as a product of imperialism fosters Faulkner’s creation of Yoknapatawpha County as a location for characters in the center to assert their dominance over those in the periphery. The dominant character’s demise as seen in Thomas Sutpen in Absalom, Absalom! retains lasting dominance over the subordinate Charles Bon, thus highlighting empire’s residual psychological affects. Hagood writes this for readers attempting to find how Faulkner’s fictional world of Yoknaptawpha Country is rife with an imperialistic reality and its intimate connection to his body of work.
Rowe, John Carlos. Literary Culture and U.S. Imperialism: From the Revolution to World War II. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
John Carlos Rowe tackles the concept of U.S. imperialism by connecting the ideas of Manifest Destiny, antebellum slavery, and racism espoused and reflected in U.S. literature. The author uses a chronology of work from the Enlightenment until World War II. Most notably, Rowe uses a diverse mix of writers such as Mark Twain, Henry Adams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nick Black Elk, and Zora Neale Hurston to convey different vantage points of U.S. imperialism. Incorporating the works of these authors representing differences in gender, class, and ethnicity encapsulates a more complete look at empire in literature. The author targets an audience looking for a balanced view of how U.S. policy shaped the writers’ works and how this was manifested in a literary sense.
Gerend, Sara. “My Son, My Son!”: Paternalism, Haiti, and Early Twentieth-Century American Imperialism In William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!.” Southern Literary Journal 42.1 (2009): 17-31. Print.
Sara Gerend and her piece entitled “My Son, My Son!”: Paternalism, Haiti, and Early Twentieth-Century American Imperialism in William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!” compares the Haitian desire for a White father figure in the United States and Charles Bon longing for the recognition of his father, Charles Sutpen. The writer depicts Haitians as prodigal children who eschewed their rebellious ways and are ready to come under the protective care of the U.S. No sooner is the island occupied than it is abandoned, similar to how Bon is discarded because the White father is unwilling, or ill-equipped, to deal with a Black child. Gerend writes for audiences desiring to see the how actual imperialistic examples are reflective in literature that is seemingly fictional in nature.
Stanchich, Maritza. “The Hidden Caribbean `Other’ In William Faulkner’s Absalom..” Mississippi Quarterly 49.3 (1996): 603-618. Print.
Maritza Stanchich displays a comparative analysis with Thomas Sutpen and the island nation Haiti in her article “The Hidden Caribbean ‘Other’ in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!” She compares the identity seeking Sutpen as someone looking to join the ranks of the Southern plantocracy by venturing to an otherwise identity-deficient Haiti in search of the knowledge necessary to fuel his slave-holding ambitions. Although he may be societal outcast domestically, Sutpen feels he can venture to Haiti and make his wealth. The author portrays Haiti in a similar, microcosmic fashion to the Sutpen family trajectory: miscegenation, rebellion and fratricide. Readers of history and literature in search of understanding more about the United States’ relationship –particularly the South- to Haiti and their mutual economic dependence on slavery will benefit from Maritza Stanchich’s work.
Ladd, Barbara. “’The Direction Of The Howling’: Nationalism And The Color Line In Absalom, Absalom!.” American Literature 66.3 (1994): 525-551. Print.
Barbara Ladd examines the impact and significance of creoles as agents of colonialism in her article “’The Direction of the Howling’: Nationalism and the Color Line in Absalom, Absalom!” The author explains how creoles in American and literary culture represented a traceable link to a Eurocentric, colonial locale and further miscegenation moved them further from the center of White privilege and closer to the periphery of Black marginalization –Charles Bon was able to pass in society whereas Jim Bond was relegated to the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. Ladd interprets the use of creoles –liminal figures- and their passé blanche status as a reminder of miscegenation and point of identity confusion to the Southern aristocracy. Barbara Ladd’s work is extensive on the subject of creoles and their place in the New World, be it fictional or in a historically factual context. She explains their role and place in the context of Southern literature by providing a thorough conceptualization of the various definitions of creole and synthesizes it effectively for the reader’s understanding.
King, Richard. “From Haiti To Mississippi: Faulkner And The Making Of The Southern Master-Class.” International Journal Of Francophone Studies 14.1 & 2 (2011): 93-106. Print.
Richard King in “From Haiti to Mississippi: Faulkner and the Making of the Southern Master-class” discusses how William Faulkner portrays the dominant fears –decadence, miscegenation, and slave revolts- of the Southern plantocracy with that of Haiti and their shared cultures. Haiti is depicted by King as a once thriving colony in the New World only to fall from prominence because of newly independent rule by a Black heir, similar to those fearing the impact of Charles Bon and the future of the Sutpen legacy in Absalom, Absalom!. The author strives to show a duality that exists in Haiti and the U.S. South –places of wealth and poverty, romanticism and barbarism. He continues by illustrating Faulkner’s destruction of duality by dismantling traditional relationships between father and son, master and slave, White and Black. Richard King’s article provides a British perspective on colonialism as represented in Southern literature and briefly touches on Faulkner’s influence on South American writers and their “fictional-world creation.”
Stecopoulos, Harry. Reconstructing the World: Southern Fictions and U.S. Imperialisms, 1898-1976. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008. Print.
In his book, Reconstructing the World: Southern Fictions and U.S. Imperialisms, 1898-1976, Harry Stecopoulos uses the works of Thomas Dixon, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Richard Wright, Alice Walker and other writers to show the effects of imperialism in the South in a comparative manner to the methods used by the United States government on a global level. Wright’s The Long Dream compares Black Mississippians and their struggle to that of Indonesians and Walker’s Meridian uses a domestic comparison by analyzing the decimation of the Native Americans to Black Americans suffering under similar governmental policies. Stecopoulos develops his thesis by using a specific writer’s work (i.e. James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man) to mirror or expose U.S. policy (i.e. Jim Crow’s need to maintain control over an oppressed population) as the 20th century wore on. The author writes this comparative analysis for an intended audience desiring to find a link to U.S. imperialistic pursuits on a regional level and reflected honestly and creatively in the literature of that moment.
Watkins, Floyd C. The Death Of Art: Black And White In The Recent Southern Novel. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1970. Print.
Floyd Watkins explores Southern literature and its emphasis on romanticizing race versus presenting it in a more realistic light in the years following the Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. The Board of Education. The author uses works from Carson McCuller (Clock Without Hands), Robert Penn Warren (Flood) William Faulkner (The Reivers), Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) championing marginalized, Black characters coupled with the degradation of White characters in these same works. Watkins speaks from an artistic standpoint and how Southern literature is suffering as characters are presented in unrealistic manner that mirrors current social movements. He asserts that literature must not be propagandized as a primary goal. The author writes for audiences seeking to find how Black and White characters are affected by societal conditions post-WWII and before writers like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and their contemporaries began to make their mark on Southern literature.
Wright, Lee Alfred. Identity, Family, and Folklore in African American Literature. New York: Garland, 1995. Print.
In his book Identity, Family, Folklore in African American Literature, Lee Alfred Wright explores the evolution of literature written by Black Americans and how W.E.B. Du Bois’ idea of the “double consciousness” has proven itself ever-present irrespective of the intended audience: White audiences during the pre-Civil War and Reconstruction era and Black audiences post-World War II. Wright traces this development through a historiography starting with William Wells Brown’s (Clotel) and finishing with Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye and Lula) and Alice Walker (Meridian and The Color Purple). This chronology illustrates how appealing to the White audience was initially necessary as an outlet to express the injustices of racism, but writing for Black audiences about Black character depictions has proven difficult to altogether shed the “veil” or “mask.” Wright demonstrates the difficulty of Black American authors striving to develop their respective voices amidst criticisms aimed at legitimate authorship, while these same authors legitimize the Black experience on its own terms, apart from White power structure.
Peter Schmidt, et al. “The U.S. South In Global Contexts: A Collection Of Position Statements.” American Literature 78.4 (2006): 691-739. Print.
The writers of these statements position the South in a global context in terms of history, writing, social and cultural movements and industrialization. Specifically, Suzanne W. Jones’ piece entitled “Who Is a Southern Writer” lifts the bi-polar veil of Black/White relations and expands that to include works by immigrant writers portraying Southern culture (Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge) and Southern culture portrayed abroad by Southern authors (The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver). Jones defines Southern culture as dynamic and evolving as told by authors exploring the familiar topic of race relations sans the romanticism and sheer brutality of previous writers. This position statement specifically broadens the topic of Southern literature to allow a more global viewpoint in and remove the binary, myopic colonial vision that has been prevalent in this canon of work since its inception.
Traber, Daniel S. Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck To Punk. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.
Daniel S. Traber’s Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk analyzes aspects of popular culture and explains how characters –fictional and real- can venture from the center (the Hegemon) to the periphery (the Other) only because they are granted this by the Whiteness as espoused from the core, the Hegemon. Using the character of Huck as one example, Traber rationalizes that he flees from the majority to find his identity with the Other (Jim), but is still burdened with racism that renders his transformation initially possible, but eventually incomplete. The author uses the concept of othering to show individual’s freedom to move back and forth from the center to the periphery relies on comparisons, usually the hegemon, in relation to the individual, and reveal a symbiotic nature spanning all aspects of a capitalistic society. Traber writes this book for readers looking to connect aspects of hegemonic influences in art –literature, music, and film- and how othering is not only a fictional idea, but also one that manifests itself in reality.
Ramsoondur-Mungur, Angela. “A Mauritian (Postcolonial) Perspective of William Faulkner.” International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research 26 (2011): 132-136. 2011. Print.
Angela Ramsoondur-Mungur semi-autobiographical article “A Mauritian (Postcolonial) Perspective of William Faulkner” compares the colonial aspects of Faulkner’s work to her postcolonial existence as a creole on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, which was once controlled by the British and French, respectively. She mentions Faulkner’s work (Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury) and how the past may be romanticized, but the truth is it can never be recaptured; it remains visible, but unattainable. Ramsoondur-Mungur argues that holding on to this fantasized past in the present may prove more devastating than the actual events. Looking at Faulkner through the lens of someone who represents his characterization of miscegenation balances the binary views of Black and White and provides a broader, global perspective on his empire-infused work.
Fowler, Doreen and Ann J. Abadie. Faulkner, International Perspectives: Faulkner And Yoknapatawpha, 1982 / Edited By Doreen Fowler And Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1984. Print.
Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie collected several essays from international authors sharing insight on the affect of William Faulkner’s writing styles in their countries of origin attending the Faulkner Conference at the University of Mississippi twenty years after his death. The writers of these essays explain how, like many of Faulkner’s contemporaries, interest in his work has not waned and translating his voice into various languages has proven troublesome, producing creolized versions of his books that are slightly different from the original. In Spanish translations, as one example, narration, colloquialisms and syntax have proven difficult to reproduce. This work shows how Faulkner’s style, like the people he wrote about, consists of many layers and is multi-faceted. Audiences looking to see how William Faulkner’s style is making an impact on international audiences from myriad of global writers will benefit from this collection.
Chris Moss - Teaching Portfolio 