Rewriting Place: Appalachia Beyond the Stereotype

This dissertation argues that Appalachian writers can reappropriate and rewrite the stereotypes that have come to stand in for realistic representations of the various cultures and populations living within the region. It examines how literature by Appalachian authors can be viewed as undermining the stereotypes about this region. It also contains a collection of short stories set in West Virginia and presented as another facet of the work that Appalachian writers do to reinvent the region in popular imagination. When a people or region is represented as containing a homogenous culture, the diverse populations that do not fit into the stereotyped version of place are erased from the cultural landscape. This text critically interrogates the practice of erasure that happens when a region is presented as containing a homogenous culture. In contrast to popular cultural representations of the place, which often rely upon stereotypes, literary works by Appalachian writers effect a more nuanced and complex picture of the region. The text examines the genesis and evolution of Appalachian stereotypes through the figure of the hillbilly, which has come to serve as an emblem for the region’s population and devolved culture. Through examining literature by Breece D’J Pancake and Scott McClanahan, this dissertation shows how two West Virginia writers have reappropriated Appalachian stereotypes, offering a deeper understanding of how the population has suffered from long-term industrial exploitation of the region and how the people exist beyond the hillbilly stereotype. The short stories serve as my contribution to this work of rewriting a stereotyped region. The stories, which take place in and around the fictional town of Brickton, West Virginia, attempt to undermine stereotyped representations of Appalachia. These stories reveal the social and historical contexts out of which various stereotypes have emerged and simultaneously portray the rich diversity of Appalachian life that its stereotypes elide