SOURCE: Lowe, John. Introduction to The Future of Southern Letters, edited by Jefferson Humphries and John Lowe, pp. 3-19. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

In the following essay, Lowe discusses new directions in contemporary Southern fiction, including a reexamination of history, a more central treatment of popular culture, and a greater presence of women authors.

It is never, as one knows, the subject, but only the treatment that distinguishes the artist and poet. 

Friedrich Schiller, “On Matthison's Poems” (1794)

We talk real funny down here We drink too much and we laugh too loud We're too dumb to make it in no northern town … We got no-necked oilmen from Texas And good ol' boys from Tennessee And college men from L.S.U. Went in dumb. Come out dumb too Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues— We're Rednecks, we're rednecks And...