Category: louisiana literature

+ absalom, african american literature, frank yerby, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, louisiana literature, southern literature, thomas sutpen, william faulkner

Aunt Caleen and Subversion in Frank Yerby’s "The Foxes of Harrow"

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Last post, I wrote about Inch in Frank Yerby’s The Foxes of Harrow (1946). Today, I want to take a moment to discuss Inch’s grandmother Caleen and her role in constructing and maintaining Stephen Fox’s plantation at Harrow. Even though the novel focuses on Stephen’s ascendancy in New Orleans society and his growth as a plantation owner, he could not have achieved his position … Read More Aunt Caleen and Subversion in Frank Yerby’s "The Foxes of Harrow"

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+ african american literature, arna bontemps, heathen at home, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, louisiana literature, southern literature, the old south

Arna Bontemps’s "Heathen at Home": Benevolence and Resistance

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1938 by Carl Van Vechten Last post, I wrote about the lion and its symbolic nature in Arna Bontemps’ “Mr. Kelso’s Lion.” Today, I want to discuss “Heathen at Home,” another story from The Old South (1973). While reading “Heathen at Home,” my mind kept going back to Donna Lee in James Wilcox’s Modern Baptists (1983) and Hunk City (2007). In those novels, Donna … Read More Arna Bontemps’s "Heathen at Home": Benevolence and Resistance

+ african american literature, american literature, arna bontemps, invisible man, louisiana literature, mr kelso's lion, ralph ellison

The Lion’s Presence in Arna Bontemps’s "Mr. Kelso’s Lion"

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At the beginning of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952), the narrator relates the story of his grandfather’s death and the lesson that the old man wanted his son to know. He told him, “Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swollen you till … Read More The Lion’s Presence in Arna Bontemps’s "Mr. Kelso’s Lion"

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+ http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, louisiana literature, lyle saxon, mardi gras, new orleans, robert h decoy, southern literature, the nigger bible

Freedom and Restrictions in Lyle Saxon’s Description of Mardi Gras

by Unknown's avatar

Recently, I posted on Robert H. deCoy’s description of Mardi Gras in The Nigger Bible (1967). In that post, I discussed the carnivalesque of the Mardi Gras season and the inversion of reality. With that inversion though, comes the realization that things will return to normal once the carnival season ends and the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. deCoy describes the effects … Read More Freedom and Restrictions in Lyle Saxon’s Description of Mardi Gras

+ a confederacy of dunces, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, john kennedy toole, louisiana literature, lsu press, new orleans, southern literature, the moviegoer, walker percy

James Wilcox’s "Modern Baptists": Bobby Pickens, Ignatius Reilly, and Binx Bolling

by Unknown's avatar

Toni Morrison, in a 1998 US News and World Report article, called James Wilcox’s Modern Baptists (1983) one of her three “favorite works by unsung writers.” This, of course, is high praise coming from such a luminary in American letters, and one read through Wilcox’s novel will more than live up to Morrison’s claim. Last week, I reread Wilcox’s first novel in preparation for … Read More James Wilcox’s "Modern Baptists": Bobby Pickens, Ignatius Reilly, and Binx Bolling

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