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The setting is particularly important in regional literature. In literature regionalism refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features, such as dialect, customs, history, and landscape, of a particular region (also called ''local colour''): "Such a locale is likely to be rural and/or provincial." 〔J.A Cuddon, ''A Dictionary of Literary Terms''. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984, p.560.〕 ==Development== Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) novels can be described as regional because of the way he makes use of these elements in relation to a part of the West of England, that he names Wessex. On the other hand it seems much less appropriate to describe Charles Dickens (1812–70) as a regional novelist of London and the south of England. John Cowper Powys has been seen as a successor to Thomas Hardy, and ''Wolf Solent'', ''A Glastonbury Romance'' (1932), along with ''Weymouth Sands'' (1934) and ''Maiden Castle'' (1936), are often referred to as his Wessex novels.〔Herbert Williams, ''John Cowper Powys''. Bridgend, Wales: Seren,1997, p. 94.〕 As with Hardy's novels, the landscape plays a major role in Powys's works, and an elemental philosophy is important in the lives of his characters. Powys's first novel ''Wood and Stone'' was dedicated to Thomas Hardy.〔New York Arnold Shaw, 1915.〕 ''Maiden Castle'', the last of the Wessex novels, is set in Dorchester, Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which he intended to be a "rival" to Hardy's ''Mayor of Casterbridge''.〔 Morine Krissdottir's, ''Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys''. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007. p. 312.〕 The regional novel is generally seen as originating with Maria Edgeworth and Walter Scott, but their regions are hardily "comparable to Hardy's Wessex, Blackmore's Exmoor, or Arnold Bennett's potteries, (because ) they are nations." 〔Liz Bellamy, ''Regionalism and Nationalism: Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott and the definition of Britishness''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.54.〕 The term has also been used, in the past, disparagingly, especially with regard to women writers, as a synonym for minor writing.〔Robin Inboden. "Regions of the Imagination: The Development of British Rural Fiction (review)." ''Modern Fiction Studies'' 34.4 (1988): pp.682-683.〕 Other writers that have been characterized as regional novelists, are the Brontë sisters, and writers like Mary Webb (1881-1927), Margiad Evans (1909–58) and Geraint Goodwin (1903–42), who are associate with the Welsh border region. Alfred Tennyson (1809–92) has been identified as a Lincolnshire poet, while Philip Larkin (1922–85) is principally associated with the city of Hull, and Basil Bunting (1900–85) with Northumberland. Then there is William Wordsworth (1770-1850), and the other Lake Poets, while the poet William Barnes (1801–86) is seen as primarily a Dorset poet, especially because of his use of Dorset dialect. George Eliot (1801–86) on the other hand is particularly associated with the rural English Midlands, whereas Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) is the novelist of the Potteries in Staffordshire, or the "Five Towns", (actually six) that now make-up Stoke-on-Trent. R. D. Blackmore (1825 – 1900), was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century, and he shared with Thomas Hardy a Western England background and a strong sense of regional setting in his works.〔Michael Millgate, ''Thomas Hardy: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1982), 179, 249.〕 Noted for his eye for and sympathy with nature, critics of the time described this as one of the most striking features of his writings. He may be said to have done for Devon what Sir Walter Scott did for the Highlands and Hardy for Wessex. However, Blackmore is now remembered for one work, ''Lorna Doone''. For information on Welsh regional writers, see Welsh literature in English 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「British regional literature」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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