The (un)popular south

The volume contains essays by ten leading European and American scholars based on their papers presented at the biennial Southern Studies Forum conference, held at Palacký University, Olomouc, Cze ...

The volume contains essays by ten leading European and American scholars based on their papers presented at the biennial Southern Studies Forum conference, held at Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, in 2007. Exploring the idea that even unpopular features of a region sometimes contribute to its popularity, the essays deal with various southern sins, taboos, and idiosyncrasies, both past and present. The authors cover slavery, the Civil War, miscegenation, the civil rights movement, and southern identities, legends, and prejudices, as recorded in southern literature and in film, for example, Walt Disney’s notorious Song of the South. Authors discussed include Charles Sealsfield, W. Adolphe Roberts, George Washington Cable, Harper Lee, Barry Hannah, Lewis Nordan, Fred Chappell, Natasha Tretheway.