In this collection of essays, 20 scholars apply new theoretical approaches to the fiction and poetry of southern writers ranging from Poe to Dickey, from Faulkner to Hurston. Departing from earlier traditions of southern literary scholarship, this book seeks not to create a new orthodoxy but to suggest the diversity of critical tools that can now be used to explore the literature and culture of the South. Instead of simply taking ""the South"" for granted, the contributors to this volume see it as a text and an idea - as something whose ideological underpinnings, complexities, and contradictions must be subjected to close reading and questioning. ""Southern Literature and Literary Theory"" represents a major effort to redefine the relationship of Southern writing and the South itself to the larger world.