The Duality of the Southern Thing: Hate, Heritage, History, and Hope in the American South 4219-SH0050
In this course, we will explore the cultural history of the American South from the colonial era to the present. By analyzing a variety of sources, we will examine how Americans—both in the past and today—have used narratives about the South to promote ideologies related to hate and heritage, as well as the actual history of the region and its people. The course will also consider how some contemporary critics of the South portray the New South as a model of hope for America and the world—at times by looking to other examples for such hope.
The course examines the prejudices and possibilities connected to the social realities of groups and individuals with diverse identities (e.g., race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, social class), analyzing how these constructs have shaped—and have been shaped by—the construct of the American South.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Knowledge:
• Student fosters a knowledge of history of the American South with an emphasis on ways Americans have made sense of the South and its checkered history on issues of race, religion, gender, class, patriotism, and nationalism.
• Student develops knowledge and understanding of the products of American culture and their characteristic historical, social, and political contexts, as well as the manifestations and processes typical of contemporary cultural, social, and political life in the United States.
• Student recognizes how social reality is shaped by actions, policies, and practices concerning multiple intersecting identities in human life (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, social class, etc.).
Skills:
• Student critically approaches sources from the discipline.
• Student develops skills to gather, select and structure information to defend one's position
• Student learns to formulate and solve complex research problems, recognizing, understanding, interpreting, explaining, and analyzing the causes and effects of cultural processes and phenomena in the United States, especially as related to making sense of the American South.
• Student articulates how the social realities of groups with diverse identities (including race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, social class, etc.) have both shaped and been shaped by some power structure(s).
Social Competencies:
• Student takes part in group discussion, engaging the assigned readings and thoughts of others actively and thoughtfully.
• Student develops professionally, continues their studies, and actively participates in the advancement of American Studies.
Assessment criteria
1. Attendance: 10%
2. Active Participation: 10%
3. Close Reading Analyses: 30%
4. Reflection Essays: 20%
5. Final Assignment: 30%
Grading: 100-88/5; 87-73/4; 72-57/3; 56-0/2
Bibliography
Baptist, Edward E. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.
Boles, John B. The South Through Time: A History of an American Region. Third Edition.
Bone, Martyn. Where the New World Is: Literature about the U.S. South at Global Scales.
Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. A New History of the American South.
Coffey, Michele Grigsby, and Jodi Skipper. Navigating Souths: Transdiciplinary Explorations of a U.S. Region.
Deusner, Stephen. Where the Devil Don’t Stay: Traveling the South with the Drive-By Truckers.
Egerton, John. The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America.
Gaillard, Frye, and Cynthia Tucker. The Southernization of America: A Story of Democracy in the Balance
Wilson, Charles Reagan. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: