Regionalism & Local Color

Regional Vs. Local Color

Regionalism: incorporates broader concept of sectional differences. Some argue that the distinguishing features that separates "local color" from "regional" fiction is that local color fiction tends to be more exploitive and condescending toward its subjects, whereas regionalism is not. Others argue that Regional and Local Color distinction is based on issues of economy and power: white urban males are more likely to be judged as the true "realists" where Midwesterners, blacks, immigrants, or women's are more likely to be judged as "regionalists."

Characteristics

Setting: emphasis is frequently on nature and limitations it imposes; settings are frequently remote and inaccessible. The setting is integral to the story and may sometimes become a character in itself. Characters: local color stories tend to be concerned with the character of the district or region rather than with the individual: characters may become character types, sometimes quaint or stereotypical. They are marked by their adherence to the odd ways through dialect and personality traits peculiar to the particular region. In women's local color fiction, the heroines are often unmarried women or young girls (think Jewett and Freemen here).

Importance of...

Some feel that this movement contributed to the reunification of the country after the Civil War and building of national identity toward the end of the 19th century. Regional/local color fiction helped to chronicle the nation's stories about its regions and mythical origins. It contributed to the narrative of unified nationhood that the late 19th century America south to construct.

Techniques

Use of dialect to establish credibility and authenticity of regional characters. Use of detailed description, especially small, seemingly insignificant details central to an understanding of the region. Frequent use of frame story in which narrator hears some tale of the region.

Themes

Antipathy to change. Some nostalgia for an always-past golden age. Women's local color: often a celebration of community and acceptance in the face of adversity. Tension of conflict between urban ways and old fashioned rural values often symbolized by intrusion of outsider or interloper who seeks something from community.

Definitions

Fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. "In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of Romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic senses, but retains through the minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description" Weakness may include: nostalgia & sentimentality. Customary form is the sketch or short story, but authors like Hamlin Garland argues for novel of local color.

Characteristics Continued

Narrator: typically an educated observer from the works beyond who learns something from characters while preserving a sometimes sympathetic, sometimes ironic distance from them. Often serves as mediator between the rural fold of the tale and it's urban audience. Plot: while little may happen, the stories generally involve storytelling and revolve around the community and it's rituals.