Literary Context: Regionalism

      Literary Regionalism is just what it sounds like, but I find it strange that it only applies to the Southern and Northern States. As we read in A Streetcar Named Desire Louisiana is partly French. This is Regionalism. It explains their culture and names. On page 1136 Blanche tells Mitch that her last name, Dubois, is "a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two mean white woods." If she hadn't explained this then it would have been completely lost on me since I don't speak French, but I bet several Louisianans would understand it. Her name also enforces the notion of the setting being in Louisiana as you're not likely to find a name like that in Ohio because Ohio wasn't originally settled by the French.
      I find it interesting this style of writing was only popular briefly and long ago. I concluded this is because the North and South were so different at the time. They were so different they even tried to separate and become two different countries. Each side had different cultures based off the different landscapes and immigrants. These differences can include different names from different countries, different clothes for a different climate, and, at the time, strongly different views of different races.
       Writers used literary regionalism to show their culture to others outside their culture. Claude McKay, a black man living in the South from 1889 to 1948, wrote poems to challenge white authority and generate sympathy for blacks by detailing the horrors of lynchings and other abuse inflicted upon blacks. His poems, such as "The Lynching(927)" do not quite apply to the North where lynchings occurred less often but racism was still abundant. He, and many other authors, used regionalism to display a culture and immerse the audience in the environment of the story.

Works Cited
 
American Literature. Shorter Eighth ed., Norton, 2013.

"Claude McKay." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/claude-mckay.
"Claude McKay - Poet." Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems?gclid=Cj0KEQjw2LjGBRDYm9jj5JSxiJcBEiQAwKWACwb2CCAQQoisxxY_E0FzaaTjS6fOZ7vnIVQYw4kMUWEaAmiD8P8HAQ.