Miss Fanny Jean Rides the Escalator: Girls, Folklore, and Modernity

Abstract

Each tale retains one foot in folklore and one foot in modern introspective essay. This is the new southern woman, who both embraces and diverges from her roots to make her own way. These autofiction pieces center around female protagonists tied together loosely by the theme of struggling for a better life amid tangled Southern roots. Their backgrounds prove to be as convoluted as the knotty roots of cypress trees that universally have become associated with the south and as beautiful as the foggy sunsets every local is familiar with. Hence, the South becomes almost a unifying character itself, connecting each heroine to her neighbor in the next chapter. A real-life image or experience sparked the initial inspiration behind each story. However, unlike real life where subjects and topics are all mingled together, writing in this way allowed for imaginative play and the addition of creations; it also ensured proper focus on one or two topics at a time or to take a tangled plot line and focus on only those events that tie into a particular theme.