Depicting Southern Honor in Maria Jane Mclntosh`s Two Pictures; or, What We Think of Ourselves and What the World Thinks of Us

This essay provides a critical introduction to Maria Jane McIntosh`s novel Two Pictures; or, What We Think of Ourselves and What the World Thinks of Us. Published in the midst of the United States Civil War, this novel takes a strongly regional stance to frame the political issues and ideologies related to the war and southern society`s patriarchal structure in established literary contexts and a familiar narrative structure. As a result, when it was published, it appealed to a popular readership that was anxious to defend itself and retain faith in the possibility of cultural and social continuity. By recovering and reading Two Pictures today we can enrich our understanding of the time period and the role that such literature played in the ultimately unsuccessful effort to validate and sustain the Old South`s distinctive socioeconomic and cultural identity.