Renaissances.

Stimulated by the aspiration and confidence that characterized the decade, the literary artists of the 1920s shared an ambition to make their work not just new but an expression of the possibilities of American creative force. The popularity of the term renaissance indicated a belief in the imminence of great developments in American culture. The Harlem Renaissance and the Southern Renaissance shared material but were segregated as to membership; no writer belonged to both.

Southern Renaissance.

In 1920 the South was H. L. Mencken's "Sahara of the Bozart"; its literature was retrospective and trapped in the lost culture of Before-the- War. Two Richmond novelists who belonged to the Southern establishment, James Branch Cabell and Ellen Glasgow, led the attack on the old school of literature and urged the discovery of Southern writers who would treat Southern material in new ways. Cabell (1879-1958) utilized satire...