This course will explore the status of “southern literature”, a category with a dubious history that can be made to speak directly to many of the political and aesthetic questions of our contemporary moment. Special attention will be paid to the work and legacy of William Faulkner.

Presenter: Ben Child teaches courses in American literature and the environmental humanities. His work has appeared in journals such as American Literature Modern Fiction Studies, American Studies, Southern Cultures, and Popular Music and Society. Child’s book, The Whole Machinery: The Rural Modern in Cultures of the U.S. South, 1890-1946, appears in the University of Georgia Press’s New Southern Studies series. His current research addresses literary productions and interpretations of U.S. populism.