Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In “The Gander Pulling,” Augustus Baldwin Longstreet comments on the prediction that his “writings will be read with increased interest a hundred years to come” by noting that “I can see no good reason, if this be true, why they should not be read a thousand years hence, with more interest.” He thus takes “the liberty of dropping a word here, to the curious reader, of the year 2833” ( Longstreet 1998 : 75). Longstreet's wry observation is more prophetic than perhaps even he realized at the time, for even though the movement he ushered in has often been discounted as a subgenre, humor of the Old Southwest is a significant regional literature in its own right. Its unvarnished portrayal of frontier life is the first expression of American literary realism and provides a singular record of a unique period in the history of the United States. Its unabashed rendering of indigenous character and scene frequently achieves distinction in such remarkable personalities as Simon Suggs, “Big Bear” Jim Doggett, and Sut Lovingood. Its frequent affinity with fantasy and distortion provides an alternate medium for interpreting life experiences. Most notable is its pervasive influence on later writers: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), William Faulkner, and Erskine Caldwell, to name just three. From a twenty-first-century perspective, it can be racist, sexist, and coarse; yet through humor, tall tale, ... log in or subscribe to read full text