ORALITY AND SOUTHERN LITERATURE by CLAY ALLEN MORTON (Under the Direction of ...

250 Pages·2005·0.97 MB·English

ORALITY AND SOUTHERN LITERATURE
by
CLAY ALLEN MORTON
(Under the Direction of Hubert McAlexander)
ABSTRACT
For most if not all of its history, the South has been marked by a
high degree of oral residue that has distinguished it from the rest of the
United States. This study explores the influence of residual orality on
Southern literature. The first chapter provides the historical background
necessary to gauge the South’s resistance to the transformative powers of
typographic literacy. Education, reading habits, publishing, and the
literary life are discussed. Chapter Two synthesizes research on oral
language with stylistic analyses of Southern literary works, specifically
James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones (1927) and Eudora Welty’s
The Ponder Heart (1954), in order to illustrate the oral bent of Southern
writing. Next, two well-known short stories, William Gilmore Simms’s
“Sharp Snaffles” (1870) and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (1930)
are shown to be characterized by the strategies of folk narrative. While
“Sharp Snaffles” corresponds to a well-documented and ancient oral
narrative pattern, “A Rose for Emily” is an essentially typographic work
that is organized according to an oral storytelling structure. Finally, the
characteristically oral modes of thought and expression cataloged by
Walter J. Ong are compared to certain well-known theories of Southern
exceptionalism, especially those outlined in the Southern Agrarian
manifesto I’ll Take My Stand (1930) and Zora Neale Hurston’s
“Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934). These oral Southern
epistemologies are shown to be significant to Hurston’s classic novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and to the poetry of Donald
Davidson. These discussions provide not only a new theory of Southern
exceptionalism, but also a new theoretical framework for reading
Southern texts.

INDEX WORDS: American literature, Southern literature, orality,
William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, James Weldon
Johnson, William Gilmore Simms, Donald Davidson,
Zora Neale Hurston
ORALITY AND SOUTHERN LITERATURE

by

CLAY ALLEN MORTON
B.A., University of South Carolina Aiken, 1997
M.A., University of Georgia, 2000

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of
Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2005
© 2005
Clay Allen Morton
All Rights Reserved
ORALITY AND SOUTHERN LITERATURE

by

CLAY ALLEN MORTON

Major Professor: Hubert McAlexander

Committee: Richard Menke
Hugh Ruppersburg

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
August 2005
DEDICATION
For Gail and Jake
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful acknowledgment is made to my committee members.
Hubert McAlexander and Richard Menke worked with me on this project
from its inception, and their insight and encouragement have been
invaluable. Hugh Ruppersburg was extremely gracious in stepping in at
the last minute to round out the committee. Other faculty members
whose generous assistance helped shape sections of this dissertation
include Valerie Babb, James Kibler, Michael Moran, and Carl Rapp. I am
also grateful to the University of Georgia Graduate School, which
supported my work on this project in the form of a Dissertation
Completion Assistantship for academic year 2004-05.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................v
LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................viii
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................1
CHAPTER
1 THE ORAL CHARACTER OF SOUTHERN CULTURE...............22
Literacy and Education......................................................26
Writing and Publishing.......................................................44
2 TOWARD A POETICS OF SOUTHERN ORALITY .....................73
James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones........................76
Eudora Welty’s The Ponder Heart........................................95
3 ORALITY AND SOUTHERN NARRATIVE: PATTERN AND
STRUCTURE.................................................................... 108
Pattern: Simms’s “Sharp Snaffles”.................................... 112
Structure: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”.......................... 128
4 SOUTHERN EPISTEMOLOGY AND THE PSYCHODYNAMICS
OF ORALITY..................................................................... 153
What Once Was Sung: Donald Davidson .......................... 162
Making the Dream the Truth: Zora Neale Hurston............ 186
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CODA................................................................................................ 204
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................. 214
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1: The Honey-Trickster Pattern ............................................... 120
Figure 2: The Narrative Structure of “A Rose for Emily”...................... 139

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