Oral Character of American Southern Literature. Explaining the Distinctiveness of Regional Texts

“Morton, a balanced critical thinker, employs the concept of “media ecology” to illuminate his analysis of the distinctly oral culture of the American South from its beginnings to the present. . . . [The author] offers an intelligently articulated and tightly reasoned synthesis of literary analysis and communications theory.”– Prof. Phebe Davidson, University of South Carolina, Aiken

“This book offers far-reaching implications for the study of Southern literature, not only in framing a refreshing new argument for distinctive “Southerness” in literature and culture, but also in terms of re-examining traditional Southern narratives to gain a new perspective on their aesthetic value and, ultimately, on the achievement of Southern writers.” – Prof. Amy Berke, Macon State College

Preface by Prof. Hubert H. McAlexander
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Oral Character of Southern Literature
2. Towards a Poetics of Southern Orality
3. Orality and Southern Narrative: Pattern and Structure
4. Southern Epistemology and the Psychodynamics of Orality
Coda
Bibliography
Index