Theories of American Studies: Regionalism: The Making of Appalachia - Detailseite

In this course, you will be introduced to theories of regionalism that will assist us in ‘reading’ the region known as “Appalachia,” a mountain region spanning from New York to Alabama. Appalachia was created in the late nineteenth century as a region of difference: supposed difference in culture, speech and demeanor in comparison to the rest of the nation (or the US-North). With the help of theories of regionalism and different media, we will critically explore this myth of difference or exceptionalism that imagines Appalachia to be the U.S.-South’s regional ‘Other’ or the nation’s ‘internal colony.’ We will start with the origins of Appalachia in the nineteenth century and trace the different formulations of Appalachian culture throughout the twentieth century and until today in different cultural texts about and from the region. Topics will for example include environmentalism and coal mining, local color and the creation of whiteness, regional stereotypes and the manifestations as well as erasures of Black and Indigenous Appalachian culture and history.