{"id":2037,"date":"2015-07-27T08:33:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/?p=2037"},"modified":"2015-07-27T08:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T13:33:00","slug":"john-lang-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/2015\/07\/john-lang-69\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lang \u201969"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><h2><a name=\"JohnLang69_N\"><\/a><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classhomepages\/files\/2014\/12\/69_JohnLang_N.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-168 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/classhomepages\/files\/2014\/12\/69_JohnLang_N-131x150.jpg\" alt=\"69_JohnLang_N\" width=\"131\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>John Lang\u2019s book, <em>Understanding Ron Rash<\/em>, was published in August 2014. John writes:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRon Rash is an author from the Appalachian South who has increasingly received international attention.\u00a0 A movie version of his novel <em>Serena<\/em> (2008), starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, has been released in France and England and is scheduled for release in the U.S. in early 2015.\u00a0 Over Labor Day weekend 2014, Ron and I appeared together at a session at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia to celebrate my book\u2019s publication and to promote his work.<\/p>\n<p>I continue to enjoy retirement after nearly 30 years teaching American literature at Emory &amp; Henry College in Emory, Va. In February 2014 my wife Esther and I celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, Lucia Lily, whose parents are both Lutheran ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Understanding Ron Rash<\/em>, the first book-length study of Ron Rash\u2019s fiction and poetry, John Lang explores the nature and scope of Rash\u2019s achievements, introducing readers to the major themes and stylistic features of his work as well as the literary and cultural influences that shaped it.\u00a0 After a brief survey of Rash\u2019s life and career, Lang traces Rash\u2019s development through his 14 books of poetry and fiction published through 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning with Rash\u2019s first three collections of short fiction, Lang analyzes the author\u2019s literacy style and techniques as well as his richly detailed settings and characters drawn from the mountain South, primarily western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.\u00a0 Then, in an assessment of Rash\u2019s four volumes of poetry, Lang investigates their thematic and linguistic grounding in Appalachia and emphasizes their universal appeal, lyrical grace, and narrative efficiency.\u00a0 Moving to the early novels <em>One Foot in Eden<\/em>, <em>Saints at the River<\/em>, and <em>The World Made Straight<\/em>, Lang traces Rash\u2019s evolving narrative skills, intricate plotting, and the means by which he creates historical and philosophical resonance.\u00a0 Then Lang examines how vivid characters, striking use of dramatic techniques, and wide range of allusions combine in Rash\u2019s best-known book, which is also his most accomplished novel to date, <em>Serena<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>After a study of Rash\u2019s most recent novel, <em>The Cove<\/em>, Lang returns to Rash\u2019s latest work in short fiction: his Frank O\u2019Connor Award-winning &#8220;Burning Bright&#8221; and &#8220;Nothing Gold Can Stay&#8221;, both of which demonstrate his wide-ranging subject matter and characters as well as his incisive portraits of both contemporary Appalachian life and the region\u2019s history. An extensive bibliography of primary and secondary materials by and about Rash concludes the book.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Lang\u2019s book, Understanding Ron Rash, was published in August 2014. John writes: \u201cRon Rash is an author from the Appalachian South who has increasingly received international attention.\u00a0 A movie [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-2037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-26","tag-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}