History and Storytelling: Historical Narratives by Women Authors of the Contemporary American South

Contemporary historical fictions by women writers of the American South show new ways of dealing with the region’s history. In a project of rewriting mainstream history, they try to provide a means of identification and therefore a “usable past“ for women of the present-day South. At the same time, they still explore the epistemological questions inherent in all historical representation. Kaye Gibbons and Lee Smith show two distinctly different versions of dealing with these questions.