חברה ותרבות בדרום המודרני

The South is in many ways America’s greatest enigma. Plagued by violence, racism, and poverty, the region has also been the birthplace of America’s greatest cultural treasures. This course will explore the history of the South from the end of the Civil War until our own day through a wide selection of historical, literary, musical, and visual texts. We will think of the South as a cohesive region but also delve deeply into the divisions of race, class, and gender that have shaped its torturous history; we will explore the tension between continuity and change and the omnipresence of the Southern past in the lives of individuals and of the region as a whole; and we will consider the South both as a distinctive section and a formative power in the making of the modern United States.