This blog will serve as a medium for communication and content for History 332 - The American South in the Twentieth Century - Taught at the University of Mississippi, Spring Semester 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
No South?
In this last chapter that we will read of Cobb, we will consider whether or not the South remains today a distinctive place. I have also added to Blackboard a copy of a paper that I presented on the crime fiction of James Lee Burke. If you would please read it so that we might discuss.
White Southerners are grounded in the beliefs of supremacy and segregation, how did they cope with this loss of ‘distinctiveness’ and how did their behavior change?
Many people feared that the idea of Southernism was becoming to closely associated with segregation and Jim Crow practices that were prevalent in the South. Some scholars felt that the Civil Rights movement was going to homogenize the south because their identity was rooted in racial identities. However, scholars such as Woodward ad Goldfield argued that the Civil Rights movement allowed Southerners to reconnect with their true identity. How did the Civil Rights movement help the white southerners reconnect to their identity?
While discussing 1990s programming hosted by the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Cobb criticizes the Center for hosting annual conferences which tended to highlight "the lighter, more lovable aspects of southern culture" such as Zydeco music, traditional foodways, and Elvis. Cobb states that some scholars worry that these conferences celebrate and promote a quaint, light-hearted version of the South while simultaneously overlooking the region's darker historical aspects (slavery, lynching, sexual exploitation, etc.). Is this approach to regional studies merely "light-hearted" or can we use the study of the south's more admirable qualities (music, food, manners, etc.) as an academic lens for learning about the region's complex (and often troubling) history? To what extent does this debate reflect or perpetuate the region's ongoing "cultural schizophrenia"?
In part of this chapter, Cobb discussed the ways in which the North came to mirror the South, not necessarily vice versa, through the "political, racial, social, and religious inclinations of its collective majority." These feelings peaked after events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In today's society, have these sentiments in the North vanished, or are they still present but in a less vocal way? In what ways does the North mirror the South today, truly living out "No North, No South"?
As the North struggled both economically and with race relations in the 1960's and 70's, the South could no longer find its identity in being the anithesis of the North. Seeing the North become like the South in these ways, Southerners sought to establish a new Southern identity. In what ways did Southerners create and market this new Southern identity?
On page 225, Cobb discusses how the south believed, "others should opt to Southernize themselves rather than persist in trying to northernize their new neighbors." To what extent does this concept still ring true in the South today? How? Why? Feel free to use our own University and town as examples or even your own hometowns.
In this chapter, Cobb speaks on the "New South", what key elements play a part in the developemental success of the South? Who and what is respoonsible for the "New South", what were the distinctions they were trying to make and how does it compare to the south today?
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White Southerners are grounded in the beliefs of supremacy and segregation, how did they cope with this loss of ‘distinctiveness’ and how did their behavior change?
ReplyDeleteMany people feared that the idea of Southernism was becoming to closely associated with segregation and Jim Crow practices that were prevalent in the South. Some scholars felt that the Civil Rights movement was going to homogenize the south because their identity was rooted in racial identities. However, scholars such as Woodward ad Goldfield argued that the Civil Rights movement allowed Southerners to reconnect with their true identity. How did the Civil Rights movement help the white southerners reconnect to their identity?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhile discussing 1990s programming hosted by the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Cobb criticizes the Center for hosting annual conferences which tended to highlight "the lighter, more lovable aspects of southern culture" such as Zydeco music, traditional foodways, and Elvis. Cobb states that some scholars worry that these conferences celebrate and promote a quaint, light-hearted version of the South while simultaneously overlooking the region's darker historical aspects (slavery, lynching, sexual exploitation, etc.). Is this approach to regional studies merely "light-hearted" or can we use the study of the south's more admirable qualities (music, food, manners, etc.) as an academic lens for learning about the region's complex (and often troubling) history? To what extent does this debate reflect or perpetuate the region's ongoing "cultural schizophrenia"?
ReplyDeleteIn part of this chapter, Cobb discussed the ways in which the North came to mirror the South, not necessarily vice versa, through the "political, racial, social, and religious inclinations of its collective majority." These feelings peaked after events like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In today's society, have these sentiments in the North vanished, or are they still present but in a less vocal way? In what ways does the North mirror the South today, truly living out "No North, No South"?
ReplyDeleteAs the North struggled both economically and with race relations in the 1960's and 70's, the South could no longer find its identity in being the anithesis of the North. Seeing the North become like the South in these ways, Southerners sought to establish a new Southern identity. In what ways did Southerners create and market this new Southern identity?
ReplyDeleteOn page 225, Cobb discusses how the south believed, "others should opt to Southernize themselves rather than persist in trying to northernize their new neighbors." To what extent does this concept still ring true in the South today? How? Why? Feel free to use our own University and town as examples or even your own hometowns.
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter, Cobb speaks on the "New South", what key elements play a part in the developemental success of the South? Who and what is respoonsible for the "New South", what were the distinctions they were trying to make and how does it compare to the south today?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete