Southern Literature documentary | 1915 - 1940

In his 1917 essay, “The Sahara of the Bozart,” H. L. Mencken berated the American South for its artistic and cultural poverty. Within a decade, however, his assertions had become irrelevant. This program depicts the rapid development of Southern American literature during the first half of the 20th century. It explores the work of William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Erskine Caldwell, Margaret Mitchell, John Crowe Ransom, and others. Dramatized readings help to illuminate passages from Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Toomer’s Cane, Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel, and Ransom’s poem, “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter.” A part of the series Voices in Black and White: The History of Modern Southern Literature. (81 minutes) 1999