The fact that Eudora Welty is childless might suggest that she would have little interest in children. Yet, the opposite has proven to be the case. This interest is evident in comments in recorded interviews, the prevalence of child characters in her fiction, and the importance she places on her own childhood, as revealed in One Writer's Beginnings, largely a collection of childhood memories which contributed greatly to the creation of Welty the writer. / This dissertation analyzes her five novels and twenty-nine Southern stories in order to determine the picture of Southern childhood presented in her fiction and, also, examines her use of children rhetorically and thematically. The methodology used is the formalistic approach which allowed close study of plot, character, and theme as well as the authenticity of the fictional childhood experiences through comparison to Welty's own. / The emphasis in Chapter One is on Welty's Southern childhood. Chapters Two through Seven classify examples of and interpret major child characters' experiences and those disclosed through adult characters' memories: love and security, fun and games, teaching and learning in school, community, and home; work and responsibilities; trials and tragic situations; innocence and knowledge. Chapter Eight concludes that Southern childhood is evident throughout Welty's canon from the earliest to the latest work; that the presentation is accurate from her perspective and for the time period covered, with a strong emphasis on the role of family; that the depiction is incomplete in that there are few in-depth characterizations of boys and no lower class or black children in major roles; and that the picture of children is generally pleasant, reflecting the love and happiness of Welty's own childhood. This chapter also determines that Welty draws child characters skillfully and in addition to using children as protagonists, symbols, narrators, details in setting and for explication of theme, she employs them for contrast, as the catalyst in an adult's epiphany, and as the prototype for a later adult character. This chapter further comments on her using children to portray the importance of storing memories from which to draw later in life. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2368. / Major Professor: Fred L. Standley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76663 |
| Contributors | Clemmons, Dorothy Tobias., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 325 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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