Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Contingent Culture: Talk, Music, and Political Economy in Southern Appalachia
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Understandings of southern Appalachia are suffused with eschatological tendencies: the death of local industry, the death of company towns, the death of a ‘way of life,’ the death of actual individuals. In the context of old time and bluegrass music performance in southwest Virginia, another set of concerns emerges: the persistent folkloric fear of the death of ‘tradition’ or ‘culture’ in the face of political-economic change. This discourse, often voiced by self-described “transplant” and middle-class residents, hinges on a reified representation of culture in its concerns about rural authenticity. In contrast, I examine the imbrication of humorous repartee, recountings of illness, injury, and death, and commentary on political-economic change by working-class musicians. This register of joking dialogue, and personal anecdotes of labor, play, and sometimes suffering, are dynamized by contingencies and singularities. Talk of a banjoist who no longer plays, probably because of his son’s recent suicide, for instance, or fond recollections of gigs at a 6 a.m. Monday cattle auction that no longer exists, or even darkly humorous stories about the antics of a renowned fiddler’s nephew fallen off the wagon: interlaced in dialogue and with the playing of string band tunes, these references unsettle consolidating or homogenizing visions of culture. In Bakhtin’s terms they exert a centrifugal discursive force, but one that, embedding personal stories in local economic possibilities and limitations, nevertheless reflects the larger political-economic histories and neo-liberal logics continually shaping the cultural and economic landscapes of Appalachia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Chaney is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Kingsborough CC, City University of New York. His primary research interests include heritage tourism, music, and development in southwest Virginia.
Conference Subthemes
Economic Development
Contingent Culture: Talk, Music, and Political Economy in Southern Appalachia
Understandings of southern Appalachia are suffused with eschatological tendencies: the death of local industry, the death of company towns, the death of a ‘way of life,’ the death of actual individuals. In the context of old time and bluegrass music performance in southwest Virginia, another set of concerns emerges: the persistent folkloric fear of the death of ‘tradition’ or ‘culture’ in the face of political-economic change. This discourse, often voiced by self-described “transplant” and middle-class residents, hinges on a reified representation of culture in its concerns about rural authenticity. In contrast, I examine the imbrication of humorous repartee, recountings of illness, injury, and death, and commentary on political-economic change by working-class musicians. This register of joking dialogue, and personal anecdotes of labor, play, and sometimes suffering, are dynamized by contingencies and singularities. Talk of a banjoist who no longer plays, probably because of his son’s recent suicide, for instance, or fond recollections of gigs at a 6 a.m. Monday cattle auction that no longer exists, or even darkly humorous stories about the antics of a renowned fiddler’s nephew fallen off the wagon: interlaced in dialogue and with the playing of string band tunes, these references unsettle consolidating or homogenizing visions of culture. In Bakhtin’s terms they exert a centrifugal discursive force, but one that, embedding personal stories in local economic possibilities and limitations, nevertheless reflects the larger political-economic histories and neo-liberal logics continually shaping the cultural and economic landscapes of Appalachia.
