Title: The underground stream : the life and art of Caroline Gordon /
Authors: Jonza, Nancylee Novell.
Publisher: University of Georgia Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Gordon, Caroline,; Women novelists, American Biography.; Novelists, American Biography; Southern States In literature.
Abstract: Jonza draws on manuscript drafts and unpublished works and letters by Gordon as well as a significant body of her journalistic writing that was unavailable to earlier biographers. From the journalistic writing, in particular, Jonza concludes that Gordon, despite her demurrals, had a fully developed aesthetic criteria, an appreciation for regional literature, and a passion for the literary life long before her association with Tate. Jonza also identifies simultaneous levels of artistry in much of Gordon's fiction - a surface story advancing conservative, patriarchal values and an "underground stream" of feminist concerns. Acutely aware of gender distinctions and barriers to her success as a writer, Gordon often strove for a prose that was not identifiably female or feminine and that used narratives and narrators molded in the southern masculine tradition.
Contents: Prologue: the matriarch of Merry Mount -- Battles and leaders, 1895-1924 -- Fantastic vision and very strange sights, 1924-1930 -- The chins are immaculate, 1930-1932 -- Portraits of the artist, 1932-1924 -- The cup of fury, 1935-1937 -- A wandering and idle life, 1938-1944 -- The shattering, 1944-1947 -- Testimonies of faith, 1947-1953 -- The malefactors, 1954-1959 -- The shape of the river, 1959-1981.