![]() | Our South: Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature Subjects: American literature -- History and criticism; American literature -- Southern States -- History and criticism; Southern States -- In literature; National characteristics American in literature; Nationalism in literature; Nationalism and literature -- Un; Since the birth of the nation, we have turned to stories about the American South to narrate the rapid ascendency of the United States on the world stage. The idea of a cohesive South, different from yet integral to the United States, arose with the very formation of the nation itself. Its semitropical climate, plantation production, and heterogeneous population once defined the New World from the perspective of Europe. By founding U.S. literature through opposition to the South, writers boldly asserted their nation to stand apart from the imperial world order. |
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