Mississippi Library Association

The Oral Character of American Southern Literature

Morton, Clay.
The Oral Character of American Southern Literature: Explaining the Distinctiveness of Regional Text.
Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.
200 pp. $109.95 (hardcover)

What is it that gives American Southern literature its unique charm? Clay Morton’s book provides a possible answer. In The Oral Character of American Southern Literature, Morton examines how Southern folk heritage helped shape the Southern Literary Renaissance. Morton traces the development of oral traditions in the South and, as his title suggests, Morton believes that what gives Southern literature its character is its foundation in this oral culture. He applies this thesis through the literary analysis of works by William Faulkner, James Weldon Johnson, Eudora Welty, William Gilmore Simms, Donald Davidson, and Zora Neale Hurston. The application covers a range of ideas, going from college education to early African- American poetry to Faulkner’s story structure. Morton’s topics will appeal to a range of scholars. The book concludes with a look at Southern literature’s place in a post-modern world.

The book is a survey text on Southern oral tradition. Morton’s chapter topics are diverse in subject matter with the overarching theme being the influence of oratory tradition on literature. The variety of topics associated with the oral tradition in the South is the only thing that appears to bind the chapters together. Each chapter could be its own stand alone book.

The text is written for an academic audience, so readers with a general interest in the topic may find it hard to engage. Scholars of Southern culture, linguistics, education, and history will glean something from the text. The book would make a good addition to an academic library, especially in the field of regional or linguistic studies.

Jorge Brown
Information Service Librarian
University of Southern Mississippi-Gulf Coast

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: June 29th, 2009