American literary regionalism: Difference between revisions

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Regionalism, or local-color fiction, was a perspective of literature that gained popularity in the United States after the Civil War. Local-color writers depicted nearly every region of the United States, lending realism to their stories by describing customs, manners and re-creating dialects. Because these authors usually set their stories in their regions as they remembered them from their own youth, they often blended realism with nostalgic sentiment. This parallels the Regionalism in art. Many Americans found this mixture palatable, and local-color stories filled the pages of the leading magazines until the end of the nineteenth century.

Background

Regionalism or local color is a literary style that was popular in the late 19th century, particularly in magazine sketches published in The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's. It was particularly attentive to the dialect and customs of regional cultures thought to be vanishing in the face of the modern corporation. The term has come to mean any device which implies a specific locus, whether it be geographical or temporal. Widely used in the theatre and especially on television, local color is often used derisively when a device becomes a cliché. In this sense, local color can be found in Shakespeare.

In Latin America, Regionalism started in the 19th century. In Spanish it is called 'criollismo' or costumbrismo. The movement began between 1900 and 1940. The setting always took place in the authors native country. The setting was typically in a rural area that had not been modernized. Horacio Quiroga is one of many Latin American Regionalist authors.

Sarah Orne Jewett was largely responsible for popularizing the form with her sketches of the fictional Maine fishing village, Dunnet Landing and her well known short story "A White Heron". Bret Harte shares the credit with creating and popularizing this style of writing, beginning with his 1865 story, The Luck of Roaring Camp. Other authors who incorporated local color in their works include: Hamlin Garland, Mark Twain, James Lane Allen, George Washington Cable, Kate Chopin, and Mary Noailles Murfree.

New England regional writers

Southern regional writers

Midwestern regional writers

Other regions

A notable Great Plains writer is Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa). Bret Harte, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Mary Austin are known Western regional writers.

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 [[Image:Mark Twain.jpg|thumb|right|''Mark Twain's writing was rich with local detail.'']]
-'''Regionalism''', or '''local-color fiction''', was a perspective of [[literature]] that gained popularity in the [[United States]] after the [[United States Civil War|Civil War]].  Local-color writers depicted nearly every region of the United States, lending realism to their stories by describing customs,manners and re-creating dialects.  Because these authors usually set their stories in their regions as they remembered them from their own youth, they often blended realism with nostalgic sentiment.  This parallels the [[Regionalism (art)|Regionalism in art]].  Many Americans found this mixture palatable, and local-color stories filled the pages of the leading magazines until the end of the nineteenth century.
+'''Regionalism''', or '''local-color fiction''', was a perspective of [[literature]] that gained popularity in the [[United States]] after the [[United States Civil War|Civil War]].  Local-color writers depicted nearly every region of the United States, lending realism to their stories by describing customs, manners and re-creating dialects.  Because these authors usually set their stories in their regions as they remembered them from their own youth, they often blended realism with nostalgic sentiment.  This parallels the [[Regionalism (art)|Regionalism in art]].  Many Americans found this mixture palatable, and local-color stories filled the pages of the leading magazines until the end of the nineteenth century.
 == Background ==