Popular scholarship seems to be kind of a newer genre; by this I mean essays by trained scholars that are scaled back a bit in terms of scope and depth, and done in styles that people without academic inclinations might find readable. Often, these kinds of works also tend to be on subject of interest to the general public that have something to do with popular culture. The Tacky South is one such collection. The authors of the various essays use sometimes rather different definitions of the keyword ‘tacky’ to look at movies, stories, novels, food, and music over the past 75 years or so.
The one thing that bothered me overall was the level of stereotyping that doesn’t really get that much attention. Reading through these, you’d get the idea that all pop cultural Southern men are terrible abuser psychos, the women are all either high society or poor, oppressed or unhappy either way, race and socio-economic status is only ever presented one way, and the education is completely absent. The concept isn’t missing; it’s acknowledged, but not really explored, which really feels like a missed opportunity. If you’re going to make the argument that Jessica Fletcher and Blanch Devereaux are basically the same Southern type, you really need more depth and detail about how a character from the northeast with one episode about her possible southern ancestry a few generations back is the same as a type of Southern archetype played for comedy. If you’re going to make me remember what I little I’ve ever cared about reality shows like Duck Dynasty and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, a little more depth of looking not just at how much do the people on screen know they’re playing up a stereotype but more into the actual stereotypes invoked would be nice.
I like the concept overall; I’ll bet it has applications beyond pop culture. Some of the pieces are interesting, but often feel just a little incomplete. If you’re going to talk food history and mention race, there should be at lest one reference to Tony Tipton-Martin or Michael Twitty or an actual food expert. Maybe I’m just a little snobbish about some of these things, but I’m pretty sure the general public can handle that, and might even appreciate the depth.
