Era c ing the South: Modern Popular Culture Depictions of Southern History

There has been significant research on various interpretations of the American South, and the relationship between Southern and American identity. However, there has been little investigation into how modern popular culture depicts and constructs the Southern past and how this shapes Southern identity. This article interrogates the relationship between modern films, race, and Southern history to ask, has the challenge to codified Jim Crow segregation changed filmic portrayals of Southern history? How do these portrayals affect both Southern and American identity? Using race as a lens, the article argues that the end of the Civil Rights Movement has created a new period of Southern identity creation, with films exonerating the contemporary South for racism and consigning most depictions of racism to the historical South

___

  • 12 Years a Slave. Dir. Steve McQueen. Perf. Chiwetel Ejifor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt. Regency Enterprises, 2013. Film.
  • Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. Print.
  • Applebome, Peter. Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics, and Culture. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997. Print.
  • The Andy Griffith Show. Prod. Sheldon Leonard, Danny Thomas. Perf. Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts. CBS Enterprises, 1960-8. TV Program.
  • Baker, Houston and Dana D. Nelson. “Preface: Violence, the Body and ‘The South.’” American Literature 73.2 (2001): 231-236. Print.
  • Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory. Cambridge: Belknap P. of Harvard UP., 2005. Print.
  • ------. Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina P., 2000. Print.
  • Campney, Brent M. S. “‘This is Not Dixie:’ The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence.” Southern Spaces, 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.
  • Clinton, Catherine. The Plantation Mistress: Woman’s World in the Old South. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982. Print.
  • Cobb, James. Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
  • Cox, Karen L. Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina P., 2013. Print.
  • Django Unchained. Dir. Quentin Tarantino. Perf. Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington. The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures, 2012. Film.
  • Duck Dynasty. Dir. Hugh Peterson et. al. Perf. Willie Robertson, Jase Robertson. Gurney Productions, A&E. 2012. TV Series.
  • Egerton, John. The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America. New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1974. Print.
  • Forrest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise. Paramount Pictures, 1994. Film.
  • Fried Green Tomatoes. Dir. John Avnet. Perf. Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson. Universal Pictures, 1991. Film.
  • Goldfield, David. Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History. Baton Rouge: State U. of Louisiana P., 2002. Print.
  • Gone with the Wind. Dir. Victor Fleming. Perf. Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable. Selznick International, MGM, 1939. Film.
  • Graham, Allison. Framing the South: Hollywood, Television, and Race During the Civil Rights Struggle. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001. Print.
  • Greeson, Jennifer Rae. Our South: Geographic Fantasy and the Rise of National Literature. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010. Print.
  • Griffin, Larry J. “Southern Distinctiveness Yet Again, Or Why America Still Needs the South.” Southern Cultures 6.3 (2000): 47-72. Print.
  • The Help. Dir. Tate Taylor. Perf. Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer. Dreamworks, 2011. Film.
  • Jansson, David. “‘A Geography of Racism:’ Internal Orientalism and the Construction of American Identity in the Film Mississippi Burning.” National Identities 7.3 (2005): 265-285. Print.
  • Kammen, Michael. Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Print.
  • Lassiter, Matthew and Joseph Crespino, Eds. The Myth of Southern Exceptionalism. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
  • McPherson, Tara. Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the Imagined South. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. Print.
  • Paisley, Brad, and L.L. Cool J. “Accidental Racist.” Wheelhouse. Arista Nashville, 2013. Compact Disc.
  • Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington, Will Patton. Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 2000. Film.
  • Roots. Dir. Marvin J. Chomsky et. al. Perf. Olivia Cole, Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton. David Wolper Productions, Warner Brothers Television. ABC. 1977. TV Series.
  • Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979. Print.
  • Silber, Nina. The Romance of Reunion: Northerners and the South 1865-1900. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina P., 1997. Print.
  • Smith, Jon. Finding Purple America: The South and the Future of American Cultural Studies. Athens: U. of Georgia P., 2013. Print.
  • Steel Magnolias. Dir. Herbert Ross. Perf. Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine. Tristar Pictures, 1989. Film.
  • Thompson, Bob. “Civil War, Take 2: Hollywood Captured the Blood of Battle but Shrank Away From Slavery’s Reality.” Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2003. Print.
  • Waitress. Dir. Adrienne Shelly. Perf. Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion. Night and Day Pictures, 2007. Film.
  • Woodward, C. Vann. The Burden of Southern History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1960. Print.