The dragon's blood

""This well could be the most important book yet published on Eudora Welty," says noted Welty scholar Noel Polk. "It offers a revolutionary and convincing reading of Welty's The Golden Apples (1949), but its implications for the study of Welty as a writer go far beyond its interpretation of this single text."" "Until the recent explosion of feminist critical interest in her work, Welty criticism was dominated by the narrow and singular perspective of her as a "white southern lady" writing first-rate "regional fiction." Today her work is being closely re-examined for its innovations and artistry. In this revolutionary new way of studying Welty, Rebecca Mark and other contemporary critics have focused not upon Welty's southernness but upon her total engagement with literary modernism." "Rebecca Mark's study proposes feminist intertextuality as a reading strategy for a critical study of Welty. Here Mark directly attacks the problem of literary influence which for decades has intrigued critics of The Golden Apples. Many have focused on its mythical dimensions. Instead, Mark finds allusions that are far more pervasive. These she sees to be a direct challenge to the dominant cultural voi