Eudora Welty’s Aesthetics of Place

A widely acclaimed appraisal of Welty’s famed “sense of place”

In this study of the particular place from which Eudora Welty’s writing arises, Jan Nordby Gretlund argues for the importance of considering the historical and cultural background for Welty’s literary achievement. Contending that her writing represents the South’s collective experience from the Depression to the present, he demonstrates that Welty’s realistic fiction reveals an aesthetic allegiance to agrarian values. According to Gretlund, her “sense of place” ultimately reflects a sense of how to live. By focusing on her native place, remembering its past, identifying with it, and expressing its essence, Welty discovers and rediscovers herself.