The Christ-haunted landscape : faith and doubt in southern fiction

Summary: "Old-time religion" has been and still is a uniquely potent force in shaping the imaginations of southern fiction writers. A little more than a generation ago, Flannery O'Connor made a startling observation about herself and her fellow southerners: "By and large," she said, "people in the South still conceive of humanity in theological terms. While the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted. The Southerner who isn't convinced of it is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God." Still earlier in the century H. L. Mencken wrote that the South consisted of a "cesspool of Baptists, a miasma of Methodists, snake charmers, phony real estate operators, and syphilitic evangelists.".

Item details

ISBN: 0878056696
ISBN: 9780878056699
ISBN: 087805670X (pbk.)
ISBN: 9780878056705 (pbk.)
Physical Description: print
xix, 408 p. ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, c1994.

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [396]-398) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

1. Lee Smith. God Not Only Speaks But Sings. "Tongues of Fire" Interview -- 2. Reynolds Price. Saintly Outlaws. "Full Day" Interview -- 3. Larry Brown. Proceeding Out from Calamity. "A Roadside Resurrection" Interview -- 4. Sheila Bosworth. On Being Southern, Catholic, and Female. From Slow Poison. Interview -- 5. Sandra Hollin Flowers. Something's Got a Hold on Me. "Hope of Zion" Interview -- 6. Will Campbell. Mississippi Madness, Mississippi Magic. From Cecelia's Sin. Interview -- 7. Doris Betts. Resting on the Bedrock of Original Sin. "This Is the Only Time I'll Tell It" Interview -- 8. Randall Kenan. Ancient Spells and Incantations. "The Strange and Tragic Ballad of Mabel Pearsall" Interview -- 9. Mary Ward Brown. Celebrating the True and Lively Word. "A New Life" Interview -- 10. Harry Crews. The Writer as Shaman. From Scar Lover. Interview -- 11. Clyde Edgerton. A Garden of Paradoxes. From Raney. Interview -- 12. Allan Gurganus. When I'm Fog on a Coffin Lid. "It Had Wings".