Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Cultural Crisis, White Privilege, and Class in Appalachia: An Analysis of Selected Memoirs
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J. D. Vance links the micro culture of family to the macro culture of region (Southern Appalachia) and nation (US). He posits a “cultural detachment” or alienation of white, working-class southern Appalachians (as represented by family and friends in Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky. What are the roots of this alienation? Can they be found in the perceived waning of white privilege, both regionally and nationally, and/or in the weakening of practiced moral values, especially as embodied in Protestant Christianity? The ideas on cultural crisis set forth by T. J. Jackson Lears in No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 (1981) provide points of comparison and sources for deeper analysis of cultural crisis. Especially pertinent are Lears’ theories of cultural crisis occasioned by the weakening of authority exercised by white elites and by Protestant religious leaders. Lears also discusses changes in communication technology and means of production that led public intellectuals to decry the state of US culture—and also led many to embrace an antimodern ideology inclusive of an arts and crafts ideology. Lears sets forth ideas that are meaningful for comparative analysis of the types of crises that Vance discusses in his work. Lears also links analysis of class and race to what he calls “the worship of force” and “WASP hegemony.” These linkages also will be helpful in analysis of Vance’s work. To extend further the meanings of the linkages set forth by Vance, I intend to examine other recent memoirs written from different gendered and racial perspectives. Among these are: Linda Scott DeRosier, Creeker: A Woman’s Journey (1999); William M. Drennen Jr. and Kojo (William T.) Jones Jr., Red, White, Black, and Blue: A Dual Memoir of Race and Class in Appalachia (2004); Linda Tate, Power in the Blood: A Family Narrative (2009); and Otis Trotter, Keeping Heart: A Memoir of Family Struggle, Race, and Medicine (2015). Other works that will contribute to comparative analysis are Ronald D. Eller, Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 (2008); Douglas Reichert Powell, Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape (2007); Leigh Anne Duck, The Nation’s Region: Southern Modernism, Segregation, and U.S. Nationalism (2006); and Jane Becker, Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940 (1998). Applications of my proposed analysis mainly will be useful for teaching of Appalachian studies and the understanding (I hope!) of class, cultural authority, and race.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Marie Tedesco is director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at ETSU. Her scholarly interests in Appalachian Studies include the history of women in Appalachia, as well as the history of the working class in the region.
Cultural Crisis, White Privilege, and Class in Appalachia: An Analysis of Selected Memoirs
In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J. D. Vance links the micro culture of family to the macro culture of region (Southern Appalachia) and nation (US). He posits a “cultural detachment” or alienation of white, working-class southern Appalachians (as represented by family and friends in Middletown, Ohio, and Jackson, Kentucky. What are the roots of this alienation? Can they be found in the perceived waning of white privilege, both regionally and nationally, and/or in the weakening of practiced moral values, especially as embodied in Protestant Christianity? The ideas on cultural crisis set forth by T. J. Jackson Lears in No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 (1981) provide points of comparison and sources for deeper analysis of cultural crisis. Especially pertinent are Lears’ theories of cultural crisis occasioned by the weakening of authority exercised by white elites and by Protestant religious leaders. Lears also discusses changes in communication technology and means of production that led public intellectuals to decry the state of US culture—and also led many to embrace an antimodern ideology inclusive of an arts and crafts ideology. Lears sets forth ideas that are meaningful for comparative analysis of the types of crises that Vance discusses in his work. Lears also links analysis of class and race to what he calls “the worship of force” and “WASP hegemony.” These linkages also will be helpful in analysis of Vance’s work. To extend further the meanings of the linkages set forth by Vance, I intend to examine other recent memoirs written from different gendered and racial perspectives. Among these are: Linda Scott DeRosier, Creeker: A Woman’s Journey (1999); William M. Drennen Jr. and Kojo (William T.) Jones Jr., Red, White, Black, and Blue: A Dual Memoir of Race and Class in Appalachia (2004); Linda Tate, Power in the Blood: A Family Narrative (2009); and Otis Trotter, Keeping Heart: A Memoir of Family Struggle, Race, and Medicine (2015). Other works that will contribute to comparative analysis are Ronald D. Eller, Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 (2008); Douglas Reichert Powell, Critical Regionalism: Connecting Politics and Culture in the American Landscape (2007); Leigh Anne Duck, The Nation’s Region: Southern Modernism, Segregation, and U.S. Nationalism (2006); and Jane Becker, Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940 (1998). Applications of my proposed analysis mainly will be useful for teaching of Appalachian studies and the understanding (I hope!) of class, cultural authority, and race.
