When the film Dead Man Walking was released in 1995, it caused quite a stir. Its story is based on real events in Louisiana, as they had been told in a 1993 book by Sister Helen Prejean. A roman á clef of sorts, the film centers on a nun’s time…

“In The News” is published quarterly and provides a sampling of stories, articles, or reviews that reference or relate to beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture since 1970. “Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker Suggests Evolution Isn’t Real Because Apes Still Exist,” from BET (March 16, 2022) “In the video clip below, Walker expresses his belief in the literal creation of life found in the Bible while denouncing the theory of evolution–which he got wrong.”

When it comes to our common myths and narratives about social justice movements in the South, the writer Lillian Smith stands as an enigma for many. Foremost among her enigmatic qualities are that she was a white woman from a well-to-do family and that her most significant contributions predated the…

The 2019 documentary challenges common narratives about Appalachian people. The film was made by Kentucky native Ashley York, who has since left the state and moved to Los Angeles after finishing college. The incitement, in this case, to return came during the 2016 election, where the choice for president…

This is the only book on the editor’s reading list that isn’t about the South specifically. However, it is about beliefs, myths, and narratives that surround a subject that is central to the South: race. …

When I designed Nobody’s Home, an editor’s reading list was a component that I felt was necessary. An online anthology available to everyone but aligned for teachers should also include a regular series of book reviews that could help both general readers and educators to choose further reading. Now, over…

The ten-minute documentary Migratruse gives a brief glimpse into efforts at turning an old plantation house in Harpersville, Alabama into site for an artistic and cultural reckoning with the place’s history of slavery. …

“In The News” is published quarterly and provides a sampling of stories, articles, or reviews that reference or relate to beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture since 1970. “Anne Rice, New Orleans’ queen of Goth literature and champion of the city’s mystique, has died,” from NOLA.com (December 12, 2021) “Part of what makes New Orleans such a great resource is the fact that it has this absolutely Southern Gothic haunted ambience,” [Rice] said. “I mean, it’s fantastic. People…

Historian Jack Temple Kirby’s 1986 book Media-Made Dixie focuses on how the overall image of the South, including the South’s own understanding of itself, was created, to some extent, by portrayals in fiction, drama, film, television, music, and other popular media. The cover features the family photo from the TV…