Regionalism Blog

Regionalism is yet another subset of the Realism genre. Regionalism, befitting its title, gets its classification from the setting of the story. However, the setting also obviously plays an extremely important role in other aspects of the stories. For example, the setting greatly influences the voice of the main character, the events that happen during the story, and the customs and dialect used within the story.

Regionalism is a form of writing that centers around a particular area of the United States (Anderson, Baughman, Bruccoli, and Rollyson). Different authors specialized in all varieties of regions. Each region of the country was represented somehow in this genre, such as the West, the South, New England, and areas where immigrants went to live once they had arrived in America. Each of these regions captured a whole different set of unique qualities and characters that made the stories fascinating(Anderson, Baughman, Bruccoli, and Rollyson).

Most authors in this genre centered around a particular city or county that was important to them in some way (Anderson, Baughman, Bruccoli, and Rollyson). For many it was where they grew up or spent most of their lives. In this way they were very familiar with the way things worked in the particular region and were therefore able to make the characters come alive in a way that was very realistic and believable. In fact, the main idea of the entire genre was the more one knew his or her setting, the more believable the characters would become(Anderson, Baughman, Bruccoli, and Rollyson). Because of this I believe the characters that came out of these various authors were merely subconscious projections of people that they had encountered throughout their lifetime.

On the other hand, they could have been imaginative characters that the authors conjured from a childhood in which they were fascinated with that region in particular. It is perfectly plausible that a young boy who was fascinated with the west and cowboys would one day grow up to focus the bulk of his writing on that area of the country and the fascinating people who brought it to life.

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. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1330&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2011).