Please Note: This program has a rescheduled date (originally January 14, 2019).
What do novelists like William Faulkner and Eudora Welty have in common that defines them by the honorific “Southern writer”? Is it growing up the region, with its warm, humid climate, that provides rich inspiration? Does a history marked by rebellion, loss, and economic struggle shape a certain outlook? Or societal stratification and racism? Or an identity shaped by family and a code of honesty, fortitude, and bravery?
Lisbeth Strimple Fuisz, a lecturer in the English Department at Georgetown University, leads spirited lectures and informal discussions about four authors—William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, John Kennedy Toole, and Ernest Gaines—whose works uniquely define what it means to write about the South.
Participants should read featured book prior to the session. Sherry and cookies are available for refreshment.
FEATURED BOOK
A Lesson Before Dying (1993), Ernest Gaines (Oscar, Louisiana)
When a young man returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach he agrees to help an imprisoned black youth facing the chair for a crime he didn’t commit. The two forge a bond as they come to understand the heroism of resisting and defying the expected. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.
If you are interested in other sessions or viewing the full course, click here.
