Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 1.01 Literature
Presentation #1 Title
“New method of keeping time": Music, Memory, and Storytelling in Look Back All the Green Valley
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
For Fred Chappell, music is a central part of the landscape and culture of the Appalachian South, and nowhere is this more evident than in the last novel of his Kirkman tetralogy, Look Back All the Green Valley. This paper will examine Chappell's use of music in this novel to not only show the importance of music to the cultural imagination of the people of the Appalachian South, but to also show the relationship between music, storytelling, and time. For Jess, the main character in Look Back All the Green Valley, music is the “new method of keeping time” that his deceased father, Joe Robert, so desperately sought, a way to make all time present time by bringing together both historical and contemporary communities of the Appalachian South, while offering spiritual renewal and hope for the future. Music, unlike the mechanical and industrialized method, keeps time through the performance of words and tunes that have been passed down from generation to generation in the Appalachian South. Therefore, for Jess, music is that ultimate act of the artistic imagination that is not only an integral part of the culture of the Appalachian South, but it also creates these connections between historical and contemporary communities for individuals. Even more so than storytelling, music creates a bond and a community between people, in that everyone present can contribute to the performance of a song, making it a communal activity that connects people to the past, the present, the landscape, the culture, and a spirituality that provides hope in their present situations, as well as their futures.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
John Crocker is a Trio/Student Support Services Counselor and English Instructor at the University of South Carolina Union. He currently lives in Spartanburg, SC with his wife, Amber, and four-year-old son, Jackson.
“New method of keeping time": Music, Memory, and Storytelling in Look Back All the Green Valley
For Fred Chappell, music is a central part of the landscape and culture of the Appalachian South, and nowhere is this more evident than in the last novel of his Kirkman tetralogy, Look Back All the Green Valley. This paper will examine Chappell's use of music in this novel to not only show the importance of music to the cultural imagination of the people of the Appalachian South, but to also show the relationship between music, storytelling, and time. For Jess, the main character in Look Back All the Green Valley, music is the “new method of keeping time” that his deceased father, Joe Robert, so desperately sought, a way to make all time present time by bringing together both historical and contemporary communities of the Appalachian South, while offering spiritual renewal and hope for the future. Music, unlike the mechanical and industrialized method, keeps time through the performance of words and tunes that have been passed down from generation to generation in the Appalachian South. Therefore, for Jess, music is that ultimate act of the artistic imagination that is not only an integral part of the culture of the Appalachian South, but it also creates these connections between historical and contemporary communities for individuals. Even more so than storytelling, music creates a bond and a community between people, in that everyone present can contribute to the performance of a song, making it a communal activity that connects people to the past, the present, the landscape, the culture, and a spirituality that provides hope in their present situations, as well as their futures.
