Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

A selective list of online literary criticism and analysis for the American short-story writer, autobiographer, and novelist Eudora Welty, favoring signed articles and books by recognized scholars and articles published in peer-reviewed sources


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introduction & biography

"Eudora Welty," by Carol Ann Johnston. An extended introduction to Eudora Welty, contains a biography and covers a number of her stories. From The Mississippi Writers Page, Univ. of Mississippi, 2005. [Johnston is the author of Eudora Welty, A Study of the Short Fiction, New York: Twayne, 1997.]

"Remembering Eudora Welty." Audio of a public television presentation on Welty, includes recordings of Welty speaking about her work and commentary by Prof. Suzanne Mars and southern author Richard Bausch. PBS Newshour, 24 July 2001.

"Frequently Asked Questions." A nice feature at The Eudora Welty Review, presents questions about Eudora Welty that students and scholars often write in to ask the Review's editors and tells where to find the answers.

The Ponder Heart, a web site to accompany a presentation from public broadcasting's Masterpiece Theater. Contents include a Eudora Welty timeline, an essay about Welty by her friend Reynolds Price, an analysis of how the novel was transformed into a screenplay, a summary of the plot, and a teachers guide.

"Eudora Welty, The Art of Fiction." Interview with Welty, Paris Review 55 (Fall 1972).

"Eudora Welty," ed. Jennifer L. Randisi. Teaching strategies for Eudora Welty, from educational publisher Cengage.

Johnston, Carol Ann. "Eudora Welty." An introduction from the Literary Encyclopedia 18 July 2002 [subscription service].

Donohue, Cecilia. Delta Wedding, at the Literary Encyclopedia 21 Dec. 2005 [sub ser].


"A Worn Path" literary criticism

Bethea, Dean. "Phoenix Has No Coat: Historicity, Eschatology, and Sins of Omission in Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path." International Fiction Review 28, 1/2 (2001) pp 32-41 [questia sub ser].

Isaacs, Neil D. "Life for Phoenix." In The Critical Response to Eudora Welty's Fiction, ed. Laurie Champion. [The entire book is available at questia sub ser].

Moberly, Kevin. "Toward the north star: Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path' and the slave narrative tradition." Mississippi Quarterly Winter 2005 [highbeam sub ser].

Orr, Elaine. "'Unsettling Every Definition of Otherness': Another Reading of Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path.'" South Atlantic Review 57, 2 (May 1992) pp 57-72 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Owen, Jim. "Phoenix Jackson, William Wallace, and King MacLain: Welty's Mythic Travelers." On the theme of "travel" in "A Worn Path" and other of Welty's Collected Stories. Southern Literary Journal 34, 1 (Fall 2001) pp 29-43 [substantial extract, muse].

Pollack, Harriet. "Photographic Convention and Story Composition: Eudora Welty's Uses of Detail, Plot, Genre, and Expectation from 'A Worn Path' through 'The Bride of the Innisfallen.'" South Central Review 14, 2 (Summer 1997) pp 15-34 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Saunders, James Robert. "'A Worn Path': The Eternal Quest of Welty's Phoenix Jackson." The Southern Literary Journal 25, 1 (Fall 1992) pp 62-73 [free at jstor, click "Preview" or "Read Online"].

Walter, James. Love's Habit of Vision in Welty's Phoenix Jackson." Journal of the Short Story in English 7 (Autumn 1986) pp 77-85 [enotes sub ser, 14 more articles avail].


literary criticism

Special Eudora Welty issue of the Mississippi Review April 2009. Excerpt from the introduction to the issue, which contains twelve articles on Welty.

Champion, Laurie, ed. The Critical Response to Eudora Welty's Fiction. [The entire book is available at questia sub ser.]

Entzminger, Betina. "Playing in the dark with Welty: The symbolic role of African Americans in Delta Wedding." College Literature Summer 2003 [highbeam sub ser].

Ford, Sarah. "The Death of the Author: Eudora Welty's Canonical Status." Southern Quarterly Spring 2004 [highbeam sub ser].

Fuller, Stephen M. "Memory's narrative gossamer: configurations of desire in Eudora Welty's 'A Memory.'" Studies in Short Fiction 35, 4 (Fall 1998) [questia sub ser].

Kaplansky, Leslie A. "Cinematic rhythms in the short fiction of Eudora Welty." Studies in Short Fiction 33, 4 (Fall 1996) [questia sub ser].

McWhirter, David. "Eudora Welty Goes to the Movies: Modernism, Regionalism, Global Media." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 55, 1 (Spring 2009) pp 68-91 [substantial extract, muse].

Patterson, Laura Sloan. "Sexing the Domestic: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding and the Sexology Movement." Southern Quarterly Winter 2004 [highbeam sub ser].

Tate, Allen, ed. A Southern Vanguard (Prentice-Hall 1947). Essays on William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren, and "The New Criticism and Southern Critics," in a collection edited by one of its leading southern exponents. [The entire book is available at questia sub ser.]


web sites

The Eudora Welty Review, which replaces the previous Eudora Welty Newsletter.

The Eudora Welty Newsletter, ed. Pearl A. McHaney, at Georgia State Univ. A biography and sample article are available at this web site, which is no longer maintained.


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