Reconstructing Dixie

Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the Imagined South

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Minority Studies, Discrimination & Race Relations, Sociology
Cover of the book Reconstructing Dixie by Tara McPherson, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Tara McPherson ISBN: 9780822384625
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: March 31, 2003
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Tara McPherson
ISBN: 9780822384625
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: March 31, 2003
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

The South has long played a central role in America’s national imagination—the site of the trauma of slavery and of a vast nostalgia industry, alternatively the nation’s moral other and its moral center. Reconstructing Dixie explores how ideas about the South function within American culture. Narratives of the region often cohere around such tropes as southern hospitality and the southern (white) lady. Tara McPherson argues that these discursive constructions tend to conceal and disavow hard historical truths, particularly regarding race relations and the ways racial inequities underwrite southern femininity. Advocating conceptions of the South less mythologized and more tethered to complex realities, McPherson seeks to bring into view that which is repeatedly obscured—the South’s history of both racial injustice and cross-racial alliance.

Illuminating crucial connections between understandings of race, gender, and place on the one hand and narrative and images on the other, McPherson reads a number of representations of the South produced from the 1930s to the present. These are drawn from fiction, film, television, southern studies scholarship, popular journalism, music, tourist sites, the internet, and autobiography. She examines modes of affect or ways of "feeling southern" to reveal how these feelings, along with the narratives and images she discusses, sanction particular racial logics. A wide-ranging cultural studies critique, Reconstructing Dixie calls for vibrant new ways of thinking about the South and for a revamped and reinvigorated southern studies.

Reconstructing Dixie will appeal to scholars in American, southern, and cultural studies, and to those in African American, media, and women’s studies.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The South has long played a central role in America’s national imagination—the site of the trauma of slavery and of a vast nostalgia industry, alternatively the nation’s moral other and its moral center. Reconstructing Dixie explores how ideas about the South function within American culture. Narratives of the region often cohere around such tropes as southern hospitality and the southern (white) lady. Tara McPherson argues that these discursive constructions tend to conceal and disavow hard historical truths, particularly regarding race relations and the ways racial inequities underwrite southern femininity. Advocating conceptions of the South less mythologized and more tethered to complex realities, McPherson seeks to bring into view that which is repeatedly obscured—the South’s history of both racial injustice and cross-racial alliance.

Illuminating crucial connections between understandings of race, gender, and place on the one hand and narrative and images on the other, McPherson reads a number of representations of the South produced from the 1930s to the present. These are drawn from fiction, film, television, southern studies scholarship, popular journalism, music, tourist sites, the internet, and autobiography. She examines modes of affect or ways of "feeling southern" to reveal how these feelings, along with the narratives and images she discusses, sanction particular racial logics. A wide-ranging cultural studies critique, Reconstructing Dixie calls for vibrant new ways of thinking about the South and for a revamped and reinvigorated southern studies.

Reconstructing Dixie will appeal to scholars in American, southern, and cultural studies, and to those in African American, media, and women’s studies.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Matters of Gravity by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book The Queer Art of Failure by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Dark Matters by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Close Encounters of Empire by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book The Great Depression in Latin America by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Biological Relatives by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Queer Activism in India by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Questions of Travel by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Genocide by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Life Interrupted by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Between the Guerrillas and the State by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book The Gothic Family Romance by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book House/Garden/Nation by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Performance in America by Tara McPherson
Cover of the book Archipelagic American Studies by Tara McPherson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy