Daniel Woodrell

Background

Born: March 4, 1953

Born in Springfield, Missouri, grew up a few hours away in West Plains. Familiar with the landscape and people he writes about

Dropped out of high school and joined the Marines

Completed Iowa Writer’s Workshop

Author of eight books, most set in the Missouri Ozarks

Crime Fiction, “Country Noir”

Lived around the US before settling in West Plains, Missouri

Country Noir: Social Commentary

…he writers of rural or “country” noir exploit the reader’s fear of the unknown, of commonplace “otherness” and the human being's natural xenophobic tendencies. But unlike the noirists of the past, the writers of rural noir seem to focus not simply on the transgressions of individuals, but on the greater issues facing rural America. The characters in these stories are the men and women who at one time would’ve been farmers, or mill and factory workers. Their lives at another point in history would’ve been good ones, but in the current economic climate where the family farm has become something of a myth, and most factory work has been shipped overseas, and the only jobs available are low paying and retail heavy, the idea of turning the remaining family acres into a highly profitable, albeit illegal, business in order to support their families seems entirely probable. Simply put, these aren’t the conmen, grifters, hardmen, and backstabbing whores that are so commonplace in most crime fiction. The characters in rural noir fiction could easily be your cousin in Virginia, or you if you didn’t skip out of your middle of nowhere town after you graduated high school.

--Keith Rawson

Ozarks:

About his novel Tomato Red: “There's none of the self-referential spot-the author stuff here, just a beautifully wrought tale of the ordinary disasters that befall people who start life on the wrong end of a raw deal. ‘There are people so alienated from the mainstream of American culture,’ says Woodrell, ‘that it's like a parallel universe. They don't expect anything but trouble from the square world. Every time they interact with that world they're given a ticket, sent to jail, drafted. It's never good. So they live by a separate value system."I've felt that way myself,’ he says. ‘When I got to graduate school in Iowa, I didn't get it. People would say things, and where I was from you'd smack them; where they're from, you're supposed to come back with a witty rejoinder.’ ”

Essential Questions:

What is the effect of poverty on social norms, education, family structure, the definition of wealth?

Is loyalty to one’s family/history more powerful than loyalty to social order/laws/government?

Why might individuals/communities decide to isolate themselves from mainstream values/norms?

How does one’s understanding/definition of justice alter when local/family law trumps traditional law? Can someone be both cruel and humane?

What does it mean to be an “adult”? What alters this definition?

Old Ideas Revisited:

Are we fundamentally selfish or altruistic?

When we are reduced to “survival mode” what social constructs develop, change, disappear? How does our definition of humanity alter? In a morally ambiguous world, who becomes a “good guy” or “bad guy”?

Does the power of memory or one’s history help or hinder our survival?

What is the role of nature/place in our lives?

Interview with Daniel Woodrell

http://www.npr.org/2006/08/05/5615980/winters-bone-superlative-teen-angst

Works Cited:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/daniel-woodrell-the-ozark-daredevil-404146.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Woodrell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Woodrell

http://litreactor.com/columns/its-more-than-just-meth-labs-and-single-wides-a-rural-noir-primer