This study offers 14 essays by critics of Southern literature on Welty's last two novels: ""Losing Battles"" (1970), an experiment in narration, and ""The Optimist's Daughter"" (1972), a comment on our time and winner of a Pulitzer Prize. This collection seeks to stimulate interest in Welty's work as a novelist and to serve as a guide to reading and to teaching her late novels. The editors of this book contend that to see beyond the South, it is not enough to apprehend the region and be imaginatively nourished by it; a journey of self-discovery is required in order to gain the necessary distance. Welty's late novels constitute such a journey from the discovery of her place to self-discovery and vision.

Foreword by: Reynolds Price