Corra Harris and the divided mind of the New South.

9780813032474

Corra Harris and the divided mind of the New South.

Oglesby, Catherine.

U. Press of Florida

2008

252 pages

$59.95

Hardcover

PS3515

Corra Harris, a child of Reconstruction, was born in Georgia in 1869, to a family very much of the Old South: land rich and cash poor. Her father regaled her with stories of his days in the Confederate Army, and she grew up in the turmoil of a changing society caught between the myths of antebellum days and the drive for industrialization. After her husband's suicide, the family's poverty drove her to write, starting in 1899. Her novels, stories and articles proved immensely successful, and she was a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. In this literary biography, Oglesby (history, Valdosta State University) finds Harris' life much more interesting than her work, which is often dismissed as sentimental and recidivist. Harris was strongly against women's emancipation, believed firmly in the inferiority of Black people and longed for the pastoral days of plantation life. Yet, within her writing, there are signs that she was subconsciously questioning her own beliefs. Oglesby sees Harris as an example of the "divided mind" of the South, and while Harris' attitudes are distasteful to us today, this fascinating study is a clear window into a period of change in American history.

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