Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature

Paula Gallant Eckard
6:30 p.m. Tues, Nov. 14, 2017, UNC Charlotte Center City

Eckard is an associate professor in the Department of English and director of American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

First published in 1937, Thomas Wolfe’s The Lost Boy gives name to the theme of lost children that has permeated much of Southern literature and provides a template for telling their stories. Eckard uses Wolfe’s novel as a starting point to trace thematic connections among contemporary Southern novels that are comparably evocative in their treatment of lostness.

In Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature Eckard explores works by six authors. Cast against the backdrop of the South during eras of conflict and change, their novels reflect a sense of history, a sense of loss associated with that history, and an innate love of story and narrative. Eckard shows how these writers perpetuate Wolfe’s efforts as they also create or find the lost child in new ways.