ABSTRACT
“Southern” is a relative term. Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as the South or southerners. The region’s boundaries are ill defined and porous, the region’s name indicates that it is a constituent part of a larger whole, the region’s history is complicated and often problematic, and the region has no political autonomy. The South is not a nation, it is not an ethnicity, it is not an ancestry, and it is much too heterogeneous to be a distinct culture. Millions of people use the label “southern” to describe themselves or others, but the term is often unstable and dependent upon context. Likewise, most Americans have an idea of “the South,” but defining precisely where the South is and how a person becomes southern or performs “southernness” is difficult. Regional terms are often used as markers of difference or deviation from a broader or more homogenous national culture to describe behaviors, practices, beliefs, or objects associated with groups of people associated with a particular area. Notice, for example, how the idea of the South can be subdivided dozens of ways into smaller, often overlapping groups according to affinities: red states, Bible belt, black belt, Chesapeake, Cajun, Delta, urban South, Appalachian South, Native South, Nuevo South, plantation South, and many more subtle distinctions of localized, politicized regional identity. If nothing specifically defines or determines “the South,” what value does the term have? In this volume we plumb the meanings of southernness and reveal the understandings of the term over time.
