Folkways in the fiction and photography of Eudora Welty

Maia S Hawthorne, Purdue University

Abstract

Folkways in the Fiction and Photography of Eudora Welty suggests that it is time for a definitive work on Eudora Welty’s use of folk materials. To date, no such study exists despite the fact that Welty has long been appreciated for the folkways in her work. In aid of such a project, the dissertation catalogs the verbal, material, and customary folkways in Eudora Welty’s art and finds that Welty uses these materials in several ways: by displaying them, referencing them, and imitating them. In displaying folkways, Welty reveals them to be deeply embedded in her characters’ and subjects’ lives, where they aid in the important work of meaning-making and identity formation. Often, these tools offer characters and subjects seemingly positive opportunities for personal growth and social connection; just as often, they are used to denigrate or exclude individuals. Folkways are often used in conservative ways, preserving dominant ideologies and acculturating individuals into the communities that uphold them. But they also often offer individuals an opportunity to resist or subvert those dominant ideologies. In referencing and imitating folkways, Welty uses the characters, scenarios, and rhetorical strategies of regional legends, folk, and fairy tales for a number of purposes: telegraphing psychological and social dramas and conflicts, critiquing history, creating mock-heroics, infusing stories with mythic resonance, investigating metafictionally the creation of oral tales, and crafting enchanted environments within which characters transform.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Morris, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Fine arts|Folklore|American literature

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