Date of Award
8-12-2014
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Dr. Gina Caison
Second Advisor
Dr. Mark Noble
Third Advisor
Dr. Chris Kocela
Abstract
This thesis investigates how performers on the television show Moonshiners challenge essentialist characterizations of the Appalachian South as a counterpoint to American nationalism. While many may believe that Moonshiners’ producers merely exploit regional identity to attract audiences, the performers claim a southern Appalachian heritage while redefining what it means to be a southern Appalachian person in the present moment. Furthermore, while the show relies on an imagined past South to create a genealogy that renders performers the authentic inheritors of moonshining’s cultural history, performers present a modern-day Appalachian South that participates in the national economy. Ultimately, my thesis explores how characters on the show use reality television to revise their audiences’ understanding of southern Appalachian people as “pre- or anti-modern,” encouraging audiences to recognize that while southern Appalachians still revere their cultural history, they adapt that cultural history to each new context.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/5815606
Recommended Citation
Vines, Kelly, ""You Ain't Got No Blueprint on It": How Discovery Channel's Moonshiners Re-Presents and Revises Southern Appalachian Cultural Memory." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/5815606