Abstract: American Southern Renaissance was mainly driven by such intellectuals as the Regionalists and the Agrarians. In order to change the all-round recessions of economy and culture after the Civil War， these southern intellectuals tried to reshape the new image of the South of America through literature and art， and then endeavored to complete the reconstruction of cultural identity. In the course， they put forward different solutions to the remaining problems of the South of America from different cultural perspectives. That is， the Regionalists looked toward the future and the Agrarians focused on the past. In addition， the two perspectives made the American Southern Renaissance take on a complex and intertwined cultural landscape where radical and conservative opinions coexisted， which also made the American Southern Renaissance significantly important in the development of American thought history. In the contemporary context， comparing and analyzing the two perspectives is helpful to clarify the causes of the complex connotation of the bidirectional development about tradition and future as well as the coexistence of conservatism and radicalism of the American Southern Renaissance in the 1930s.

Key words: American Southern Renaissance, cultural perspective, Regionalist, Agrarian