Millennial Mountaineer: The Reconfiguration of Literary Appalachia in the Works Of Pinckney Benedict, Chris Offutt, And Charles Frazier
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Paul Lester Robertson (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
- Advisor
- Sandra Ballard
Abstract: The specific focus of this thesis is on three novels emerging from what I argue is the
latest period, or era, of “insider” Appalachian fiction: Pinckney Benedict's Dogs of God
(1994), Chris Offutt's The Good Brother (1997), and Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain (1997).
Significantly, these works celebrate (for lack of a better word) an untamed, violent,
“backwards” (in the sense of refusing the dictates of mainstream American society) vision of
the region. While this fictional vision has antecedents drawn from the several previous eras
of Appalachian-themed fiction, Benedict, Offutt, and Frazier reinterpret and re-contextualize
the very traits that provide a negative stereotype of the Appalachian region and its people.
That is, they take the attributes that consistently define the “other” of mainstream American
values: violent inclinations, refusal to embrace mainstream ideological/moral imperatives,
and resistance to progress—and transform them into a positive, “heroic” or, more correctly, “anti-heroic” vision of the region that proudly offers an almost militant counterpoint to their
correspondingly negative vision of mainstream America. Such realignment of symbols
confirms Anthony Harkins' point in Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon:
“Although the hillbilly image has remained relatively unchanged, the meaning of these
representations and the word itself have continuously evolved over the past century in
response to broader social, economic, and cultural transformations in American society.”
In this “postmodern” age of shifting, composite identities, popular culture is
experiencing a pronounced change in what it views as an ideal hero and an ideal world.
Recent popular reinterpretations of the American hero emerging in film and print validate the
positions of these Appalachian writers and their works within a larger American context.
Such revision of what constitutes a literary (or cinematic) hero may help to explain the
general popularity of such works as those examined here.
Millennial Mountaineer: The Reconfiguration of Literary Appalachia in the Works Of Pinckney Benedict, Chris Offutt, And Charles Frazier
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Created on 12/17/2010
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Robertson, Paul. (2010). Millennial Mountaineer: The Reconfiguration of Literary Appalachia in the Works Of Pinckney Benedict, Chris Offutt, And Charles Frazier. Unpublished master's thesis. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
- Language: English
- Date: 2010