Most critics of southern novelist Eudora Welty have analyzed her work with a primary focus on her southern background. In Serious Daring from Within, Franziska Gygax instead uses a gender-specific approach to analyze Welty's novels, illustrating how Welty's narrative techniques establish female authority and frequently undermine patriarchal values.

From this unique perspective, Gygax examines Delta Wedding, The Golden Apples, Losing Battles and The Optimist's Daughter, and argues that Eudora Welty indirectly and subtly created a radical vision of a female world. The study applies feminist literary theory when considering the various narrative structures of each novel. Scholars of literary criticism, southern literary studies and/or women's studies will find Serious Daring from Within enlightening and rewarding.