{"id":88468,"date":"2025-02-14T21:50:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-february-14-2025-love-letters-to-the-big-easy-literary-new-orleans\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T21:50:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:50:26","slug":"americanstudies-february-14-2025-love-letters-to-the-big-easy-literary-new-orleans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=88468","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: February 14, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Literary New Orleans"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[Last
\nmonth I got to return to my
\nfavorite American city<\/a> for the 2025 MLA Convention<\/a>.
\nSo for this year\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day series I\u2019ll be offering some love letters to
\nwhat makes New Orleans so unique, leading up to a special tribute post this
\nweekend!]<\/p>\n

On five of
\nthe many books through which we can read New Orleans.<\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>The
\nGrandissimes<\/a><\/span><\/i> (1881): I love George Washington Cable\u2019s
\nmessy and magnificent multi-generational historical novel so much that I featured
\nit in that hyperlinked post in my very first week of blogging (and made it the
\nsole focus of the last chapter of my
\ndissertation\/first book<\/a> to boot). I also don\u2019t know any novel that more
\nfully captures its setting than does Cable\u2019s for New Orleans, making it doubly a
\nmust-read for anyone who loves the Big Easy. <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>The
\nAwakening<\/a><\/span><\/i> (1899): Kate Chopin\u2019s masterpiece, which as illustrated by that
\nhyperlinked post I\u2019ve taught many times and always to great effect, isn\u2019t
\nnecessarily about New Orleans\u2014indeed, I\u2019d argue that Chopin\u2019s story could take
\nplace most anywhere. But at the same time, Chopin was consistently interested
\nin portraying her Louisiana and Creole communities through local
\ncolor writing<\/a>, and there\u2019s a lot we can learn about them in this novel. <\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>A
\nStreetcar Named Desire<\/a><\/span><\/i> (1947): That hyperlinked post focuses on The
\nIceman Cometh<\/i>, because for whatever reason I haven\u2019t written at length in
\nthis space about Tennessee Williams\u2019s iconic New Orleans-set play<\/a>.
\nI also know it less well than I do other Williams works, or even than I do the
\nfilm adaptation with Brando\u2019s
\nfamous t-shirt<\/a>. But we can\u2019t talk literary New Orleans without Williams and
\nStreetcar<\/i>!<\/span><\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>The
\nMoviegoer<\/a><\/span><\/i> (1961): As I argued in that hyperlinked post, Walker Percy\u2019s unique
\nand quirky debut novel is profoundly interested in where American society and culture
\nwere in its early 1960s moment, and thus is more interested in portraying and
\nengaging with the time layer of setting than the place one. But Percy\u2019s protagonist
\nBinx Bolling spends the whole novel roaming his native New Orleans, making this
\nbook for many readers then and since an iconic
\ntour guide<\/a> to that city. <\/span><\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>The
\nYellow House<\/a><\/span><\/i> (2020): Mostly I want to take this last entry
\non the list to recommend Sarah Broom\u2019s<\/a>
\nmulti-generational family memoir as enthusiastically as I can. But it also offers
\nan excellent book-end to the first post in this week\u2019s series, as I don\u2019t know
\nany book that captures all the layers of New Orleans and of the America it
\nreflects better than Broom\u2019s. <\/span><\/p>\n

Special
\npost this weekend,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Cities you\u2019d love on? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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So for this year\u2019s Valentine\u2019s Day series I\u2019ll be offering some love letters to what makes New Orleans so unique, leading up to a special tribute post this weekend!] On five of the many books through which we can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[13299,1022,281,3843,9436,4247,465,19048],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-88468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-americanstudies","tag-big","tag-easy","tag-february","tag-letters","tag-literary","tag-love","tag-orleans"],"yoast_head":"\nAmericanStudies: February 14, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Literary New Orleans - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=88468\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AmericanStudies: February 14, 2025: Love Letters to the Big Easy: Literary New Orleans - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[Last month I got to return to my favorite American city for the 2025 MLA Convention. 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