Southern literature generally refers to literature written by authors who hail from the American South or literature that is set there. Southern literature demonstrates the ways that geographical identity, with its particular cultures, histories, landscapes, and traditions, shapes the people who live there. Family, race, class, community, and memory are frequent topics in this genre, and works often reflect themes of pride, identity, and religious belief (“What Makes Southern Literature Its Own Genre?” Deep South Magazine, 2 July 2021).

Southern literature frequently examines how the region’s legacy of slavery and discrimination has affected both Black and white Southerners. Southern identity, shaped by the legacies of enslavement of Black people, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow, is often at the heart of Southern literature as writers grapple with the history, traditions, and culture of this region. The continued oppression of Black Americans and lingering racism are frequently at the forefront of such literature for white and Black authors alike. In The Pecan Man, though state-sanctioned racial segregation has ended, the residents of Mayville maintain unspoken boundaries of white and Black neighborhoods. In the novel, set in 1976, crossing those boundaries or challenging the norm is socially unacceptable.