The “revolt from the village” literary movement is utterly familiar but generally understudied. In Village Rebels Stephanie Palmer expands the understanding of the 1910s and 1920s movement to include works by white women and African American men and women, redefining the prevailing yet limited conception of the movement. Palmer proposes that a rebellion from middle American small towns was anticipated by white women writers like Mary Austin, Susan Glaspell, and Willa Cather and promoted by African American men and women like Nella Larsen, Wallace Thurman, and Langston Hughes. Combining a focus on gender and race with environmental justice, Palmer offers the first analysis of “revolt from the village” literature’s ecological consciousness.
Taking the contributions of new voices seriously diversifies the understanding of American literature in its shift toward modernity. The ecocritical and feminist interpretive framework unearths this literary movement’s unexamined seam of environmentalism, feminism, and agitation for sustainable communities. Far from marking the end of small towns or regional literature, the “revolt from the village” movement offers ideas of how to reform and protect middle American life.