Over the Hills: Locating the Politics in Redneck Discourse

Author

Brent M. Heavner

Date of Award

2006

Degree Name

Communication Studies

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Bertram Gross

Second Advisor

Camilla Brammer

Third Advisor

Edward Woods

Abstract

This project offers a critique of popular redneck discourse in the United States from a perspective that draws from Marxism, cultural studies, and whiteness studies. Three individual studies are presented in order to map out the tenor of popular discourse: a content audit of major print media that use the term redneck, a textual analysis of print media that use the term redneck, and a textual analysis of entertainment media that construct and encourage identification with a redneck lifestyle. The redneck construct, it is argued, serves to mark the boundaries of normative whiteness and obfuscate white privilege. As a commodified identity, redneck not only functions to entrench the status quo in terms or racial privilege, but also in terms of class and consumer culture.

Subject(s)

Rednecks - Communication.

Recommended Citation

Heavner, Brent M., "Over the Hills: Locating the Politics in Redneck Discourse" (2006). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 189.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/189