The literary criticism of the so-called cult of Southern femininity in the fiction and drama of Southern writers is well established. However, there is little criticism regarding these figures in Southern poetry. In response to this gap in scholarship, this study examines the changing representations of the belle or lady in Southern poetry from the early nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. She appears in poems written by white and African American men and women from three distinct historical and literary periods in the South: the antebellum period, the post-bellum period, and the twentieth century. This study examines the manner in which these different groups of poets in each period represent her. The overall trend of Southern poetry’s portrayal of women through these periods is that it moves from an idealized and mythical image in the antebellum period to a more realistic image in the twentieth century.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-5302 |
| Date | 07 August 2010 |
| Creators | Henderson, Margaret Jean |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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