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Abstract: The paper explores the specificity of literary regionalism of Southern California during the second half of the 19th century, focusing on the local color poetics in Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel Ramona (1884). Jackson’s creative work holds an important place in both American and world literature. However, there are relatively few studies on Jackson’s work in the Russian-language scholarly literature. The aim of this article is to reveal the specific features of local color poetics in its American interpretation on the basis of the text of Jackson’s Ramona and to characterize the style and language of the writer. The research methodology draws on the studies that view literary text as a product of culture, history, and social life. The paper combines the traditions of the comparative-historical literary studies with the culturological approach to the analysis of the means of expression of the local color. As a result of their study, the authors outline the specific features of literary development of the US regions during the 19th century, describe the essence of the local color literature phenomenon. While analyzing the language and style of the novel, the paper identifies a set of techniques facilitating the creation of a truthful vivid image of the region in the spirit of the literature of the local color. The study concludes that Jackson varies the narrative pace, shifting from meditative, measured descriptions to fast, dynamic scenes in order to enhance the emotional impact upon the reader. Emotionality and sentimentality emerge as the key parameters of local color in Jackson’s interpretation. The paper argues that the space of Southern California plays the leading role in the ideological-thematic content of the novel. The results of the analysis can be applied in literary studies to gain a deeper understanding of the writer’s creative activity, analysis of literary movements, or exploration of the cultural-historical context of the work of fiction.

About the author(s) :

Tatyana V. Voronchenko

Transbaikal State University (Chita, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7913-3057

Elena A. Gladkikh

Transbaikal State University (Chita, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7108-5492

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 10.10.2024; date of publication: 30.06.2025

References:

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