Studying Welty: A Visual Response

Abstract

Studying Welty:A Visual Response Kain Kibodeaux (bio) In creating this word cloud, I asked myself two essential questions: what does a word cloud—generally and specifically to Welty—aim to accomplish and what does it, as a newfound, fast medium, do differently than other infographics and visual representations? To answer the first question, I believe that a word cloud allows the user or artist to convey nuanced and complex ideas in a small, organized fashion; however, and possibly more importantly, a word cloud simultaneously functions by allowing those ideas to coexist, communicate, and interact with one another. A word cloud forces the viewer to question the relationship between the various words and terms more effectively than other forms of visual representation. For artists such as Welty, the interconnectedness of their themes and ideas is vital. Welty's art is highly intertextual, genre-bending, and thematically intricate; to understand and appreciate her work, it is not enough to recognize each individual moving part but rather how those parts work, as a collective, to complement and bring awareness to each other and put forth a message. For example, female art and southern tradition coexist within the word cloud to accentuate Welty's observations on the South's restriction of female creatives, such as in a character like Miss Eckhart in "June Recital," a figure contained and scorned by her Morgana community. While the themes possess meaning separately, when in tandem, they posit a critique that, in some sense, transcends what the words can accomplish independently, a critique that frames the South's confinement of feminine art through more than just gender but also class and race. [End Page 141] Click for larger view View full resolution Secondly, to me, no other visual representation quite mimics Welty's literary process in the way the word cloud does. In reading her work, albeit a limited selection to date, I find there to be a chaotic orderliness, a phrase that highlights Welty's utilization of postmodern intertextuality, alongside surrealism, to create a discordant narrative that functions as a microcosm for the complexity of real-life socioeconomic inequality and discourse. For example, in "Sir Rabbit," the narrative unfolds along a dream-like hunting ground where Welty imbues King MacLain with aspects of African folklore (the trickster figure), Greek mythology (the Leda and the Swan myth), and southern tradition. To make the story even more complex, Welty employs comedy, nursery rhyme, and therianthropes. As these various elements cohabit the same short story, they converse with one another not [End Page 142] dissimilarly to those of the word cloud. Among all the chaos and conversation, Welty creates a cohesive work that levies a substantial critique against White, patriarchal society and society's complicity in continuing harmful myths and traditions, while also providing disenfranchised groups with the language to retell their own experiences. Of course, when I allude to surrealism, I am not necessarily referring to just the traditional tenets of bizarre juxtaposition, irrationality, and dream-like iconography of the early modern French movement, although they certainly find their way into Welty's writing, but more so, to what I believe we have come to accept as the focality of the artistic movement in modern times: an adamant refusal to accept life in its current state, a rejection of what was and is in favor of what could and ought to be. And, I think that is what I find so inspiring and fascinating about Welty and her work. [End Page 143] Kain Kibodeaux University of West Georgia1 Kain Kibodeaux KAIN KIBODEAUX is a first-year graduate student specializing in creative writing at the University of West Georgia. His academic interests include Southern American Literature, avant-garde poetry, and the creative essay. He plans to attend a PhD program upon graduation and/or teach secondary or tertiary education. Footnotes 1. Kain Kibodeaux is a graduate student who specializes in creative writing at the University of West Georgia. While he has studied Welty's fiction in Dr. Harrison's classes, he was asked to create a visual for the Eudora Welty Review website as part of his work as a GRA that led to this reflection. Copyright © 2023...