Regionalism

Regionalism can be defined by Dictionary.com as such: “The theory or practice of emphasizing the regional characteristics of locale or setting, as by stressing local speech.” Dictionary.com defines it well, as this is the essence of Regionalism.

Regionalism was a movement found within the Realism movement. Since Realism was all about portraying life as it appeared in everyday situations, Regionalist writers realized that their local culture was their everyday life and something to be celebrated, so they began to write with the dialect of their region and all the settings and unique quirks that were specific to that region (Werlock). Because of this, Regionalist works vary by large degrees, but they end up providing colorful pictures of the particular regions that they represent.

As well as using the local dialect to provide a piece of their local color, Regionalist writers also drew from the history of the region, using such things as the Civil War and the immigrant settlers of the West to add even more local color to their fiction (Werlock).

However, they did not use such specific locales and the like specifically for the sake of adding local color to their works; they did it for the sake of exposing universal themes often found in such locales (Werlock). For example, Anderson suggests, “Cather’s Scandinavian immigrants, for example, suggest the difficult yet durable quality of American pioneers. The American West embodies the American myth of the self-made man, the loner, and the adventurer heading out for new territory and exploring the frontier.” This way, the Regionalism serves a double purpose of exploring the local dialect, mannerisms, and history of an area while at the same time exploring the great ideas it can show the rest of the world (Anderson).

Strangely, though, not all Regionalist writers were in fact from the region that they wrote about (Anderson). Many of them became enamored with locales far different from the ones they had known all their lives, so they immersed themselves in them in order to write about them and let the rest of the world revel in their local riches (Anderson). Either way, Regionalism became the ultimate form of Realism in that it gave away universal truths while celebrating the heritage of average Americans at the same time.

Works Cited

Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds. "regionalism." Encyclopedia of American Literature: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, vol. 3, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 16 Feb. 2011. http://www.fofweb.com.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "regionalism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 16 Feb. 2011. http://www.fofweb.com.

“Regionalism.” Dictionary.com. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. www.dictionary.com