FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - With its regional emphasis and its insulated characters and themes, Southern literature has always been regarded as separate and contained - rarely penetrated by the concerns of the larger world. But new scholarship from a University of Arkansas researcher reveals a more responsive and reflective South, one attuned and reactive to forces that were pushing the world ever closer to war.

"Southern society is generally seen as being isolationist and defensive, with Southern literature characterized as firmly grounded in place and region," said Robert Brinkmeyer, chair of the UA English department. "But the rise of totalitarianism in Europe actually profoundly impacted Southern cultural and literary expression from the 1920s to the 1940s."

An expert on contemporary Southern literature, Brinkmeyer has embarked on a new line of research, which takes his scholarship back to the World War II era. There, Brinkmeyer found Southern society keenly aware of the totalitarian regimes pressing in upon Europe. Further, he found that cultural critics and writers of the time contemplated the parallel between Europe’s predicament and the social and political pressures mounting in the American South.

Brinkmeyer presented portions of his research this month during an invited lecture at the University of Turku in Finland. His presentation feeds into a larger research project, which will culminate in the publication of a book, titled, "The Fourth Ghost: European Totalitarianism and the White Southern Imagination, 1925-1950."

Though American Southerners condemned the Nazi and fascist regimes gaining ground across the Atlantic, they found a strange reflection of their own region in the plight of Europe. That reflection filtered into the literature differently, according to the political outlook of each writer, Brinkmeyer said.

For example, conservative Southern writers such as William Alexander Percy, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate characterized totalitarianism as the inevitable end-point of modern economic and social policies that championed equality and reform. Regarding such policies as aggressively promoting change merely for change’s sake, these writers considered their traditional way of life jeopardized by growing nationalism and modernity in the United States, and they compared the position of the South to that of pre-modern Europe.

Liberal Southern writers also drew comparisons between totalitarianism and the South. But for these authors - including Clarence Cason, W.J. Cash, Lillian Smith and Stetson Kennedy - the Southern way of life wasn’t threatened by fascism; it was an example of it.

"In their eyes the traditional South looked less traditional than totalitarian, under the thumb of dictatorial ideas - particularly the ideologies of racial segregation and economic exploitation - if not dictators per se," Brinkmeyer said.

He points out that Cash’s 1941 book "The Mind of the South" draws parallels between Southern attitude and culture and those that gave rise to Nazi Germany. Other authors, including Smith and Kennedy, wrote of Southern tradition while citing oppressive social and economic conditions as characteristic of totalitarian regimes.

Exploration of these ideas appeared in fiction as well, where Southern writers lifted images, metaphors and themes from the totalitarian invasion of Europe to illustrate the tension between modernism and tradition in the South. Carson McCullers’ novels "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and "A Member of the Wedding," written in 1940 and 1946 respectively, feature repeated references to the war in news reports, radio programs and conversations. The small-town lives of her characters, plagued by racial tension and social disorder, heighten both the terror and appeal of that onslaught of totalitarian ideology.

In addition, Brinkmeyer charts the literary transformation of two prominent Southern writers who separately visited Nazi Germany - Katherine Anne Porter and Thomas Wolfe. Though the themes of Porter’s work often pitted individualism against conformity, Brinkmeyer claims this thematic focus took on a darker tone and deeper fervency in reaction to the author’s experiences in Germany.

Wolfe’s transformation also revolved around individualism - the primary theme of his early works. "After his visits to Germany in 1935 and 1936, the fierce, Romantic individualism that had characterized Wolfe’s work evolved into a more socially conscious fiction," Brinkmeyer said. "Through his fiction, he began to interrogate not only his own but also the nation’s racial prejudices and character."

By examining Southern writing in an international context, Brinkmeyer presents a new perspective on how Southerners, themselves, regarded their region. At the same time, he looses regionalism from its reputation for isolation, indifference and chronic self-reference - showing how Southern literature responded critically and thematically to events in the world around it.

Brinkmeyer’s presentation at the University of Turku formed the capstone of a ten-day visit to Finland. Having spent a year there in 1994-95 as a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar, Brinkmeyer was invited back this winter to deliver lectures and teach classes on Southern literature at the University of Turku and the University of Helsinki.

"There’s a strong interest in American studies in Finland, particularly in regards to Southern culture," Brinkmeyer said. "Finland is a very homogenous culture, so they’re fascinated with the workings of a multicultural society - issues of race, civil rights, African American writing and culture strike them as thought-provoking and exotic."