The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture

Volume 4: Myth, Manners, and Memory

Charles Reagan Wilson

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN:
  9781469616704
• Print ISBN:
  9780807856925
  9780807830291
• Subtopic: North American History

This volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture addresses the cultural, social, and intellectual terrain of myth, manners, and historical memory in the American South. Evaluating how a distinct southern identity has been created, recreated, and performed through memories that blur the line between fact and fiction, this volume paints a broad, multihued picture of the region seen through the lenses of belief and cultural practice.

The 95 entries here represent a substantial revision and expansion of the material on historical memory and manners in the original edition. They address such matters as myths and memories surrounding the Old South and the Civil War; stereotypes and traditions related to the body, sexuality, gender, and family (such as debutante balls and beauty pageants); institutions and places associated with historical memory (such as cemeteries, monuments, and museums); and specific subjects and objects of myths, including the Confederate flag and Graceland. Together, they offer a compelling portrait of the “southern way of life” as it has been imagined, lived, and contested.

INDEX

Page numbers in boldface refer to articles.

• Abolitionists, 57, 235, 255
• Abortion, 60
• Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner), 28, 86, 104, 141, 272;
  • as first postmodern novel, 145
• Acadians, 6, 221
• Adams, Henry, 142
• Adams, Herbert Baxter, 195
• Adams, Samuel, 44
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain), 32, 84, 235
• Advertising, 182, 200, 202, 260, 261
• Affirmative action, 213
• Africa, 1;
  • influence of, 9–11, 100
• African Americans, 3, 15, 66, 191, 195;
  • churches of, 3;
  • cultural identity of, 3, 4, 30;
  • fashion of, 4;
  • and etiquette, 5, 51–53, 100, 101;
  • Civil War narratives of, 6;
  • customs of, 9;
  • expressions of, 9;
  • neighborhoods of, 10;
  • performances of, 10;
  • material culture of, 10;
  • communities of, 10, 20, 21, 37, 38, 41;
  • free, 10, 36;
  • and concepts of beauty, 17, 20, 21;
  • skin color of, 19, 20, 21;
  • on college campuses, 21;
  • pride of, 21;
  • urban, 21;
  • in Miss America pageant, 25;
  • as preachers, 31;
  • language of, 32;
  • views of and uses of time, 36;
  • folk culture of, 41, 163;
  • music of, 41;
  • assimilatio...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume 4: Myth, Manners, and Memory
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• CONTENTS
• GENERAL INTRODUCTION
• INTRODUCTION
• MYTH, MANNERS, AND MEMORY
• INDEX OF CONTRIBUTORS
• INDEX