University of Georgia Press American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary (New Southern Studies)

Review Besides adeptly taking on concepts and questions circulating in the field, American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary intervenes in new exciting ways, "rereading the South" (old, new and postmodern) and insightfully interrogating the South on film, from Birth of a Nation to "Birmingham Sunday," Slacker and beyond. This deft anthology makes great reading for anyone wanting to understand the development of the cinematic South; for an educated general audience, as well as graduate courses in cinema studies and American studies.--Ed Guerrero "associate professor of cinema studies and Africana studies, New York University "Deborah Barker and Kathryn McKee's American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary draws the imagined South brilliantly and broadly, as a set of images, sounds, and narratives that help produce an American cinema and as a reservoir for values in need of salvage or denial and contradictions in need of resolution. Placing the New Southern Studies in conversation with film studies, this book is simply the best edited collection available on film and the U.S. South.--Grace Hale "associate professor of history and American studies, University of Virginia "Holding a copy of American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary inspires the feeling of receiving something long overdue. . . . The editors and essayists responsible for this thoroughly impressive collection have made an invaluable contribution to the ongoing effort to revise and expand possibilities for bringing representations of the South into illuminating focus.--Ted Atkinson "Journal of Southern History "With essays dealing with everything from True Blood and Slackers to the "watermelon pictures" of very early cinema, this is not your hippie aunt's "Southern Imaginary." Edgy yet teachable, with essays by many of the best younger scholars in the field, Barker and McKee's landmark collection reminds us why "the South" remains central to the Hollywood--and indie--imaginary.--Jon Smith "coeditor of Look Away! The U.S. South in New World Studies " Product Description Employing innovations in media studies, southern cultural studies, and approaches to the global South, this collection of essays examines aspects of the southern imaginary in American cinema and offers fresh insight into the evolving field of southern film studies. About the Author KATHRYN McKEE is the McMullan Associate Professor of Southern Studies and English at the University of Mississippi. She has published in a range of journals, including American Literature, Legacy, Mississippi Quarterly, and Southern Literary Journal.