Robert Penn Warren's circus aesthetic and the Southern renaissance

"In this book, Patricia L. Bradley analyzes the extent to which Warren's 1947 novella "The Circus in the Attic" and its use of the circus trope establishes a critical matrix for interpreting his fiction, poetry, essays, and literary criticism. She then goes on to examine the ways in which authors such as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Katherine Anne Porter, Caroline Gordon, Eudora Welty, and Ralph Ellison also use the metaphor alternately to mourn and to celebrate changes in both the tenor of the South and the vehicle of the carnival. Even contemporary heirs to the Southern Renaissance, such as Toni Morrison, use the circus trope to similar effect." "Robert Penn Warren's Circus Aesthetic and the Southern Renaissance aligns Warren's work with that of other authors of the Southern Renaissance and examines intertextuality among them. Further, it establishes "The Circus in the Attic" - a short, teachable Warren piece - as central to his canon. Finally, this book reveals the expressive role of the circus in southern history and culture in the first half of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.