American Civil War as a Catalyst of Changes in Literature

The works of the 60-70s of the XIX century define a pronounced "agitational", propaganda orientation. The Civil War, the crushing defeat and the Reconstruction period left their mark on the Southerners' sense of self. Even after the withdrawal of the Northern armies, they were forced to accept the degrading role of losers, second- class citizens in their own homeland, and many of them saw themselves as such. Southerners were accused of racism, religious intolerance, spiritual and intellectual degradation, which in turn only contributed to people's feelings of helplessness and despair, especially in the early years after the Civil War. As a consequence, the interpretation of military issues was extremely subjective and was a conductor of the official point of view of the South, the author's commentary on the events of those years. This led to a significant transformation of historical facts and characters, subordinating them to the ideological installation of the South.