A "redder" shade of pale: Constructing redneck identity in contemporary popular culture
Abstract
Recent studies have examined the use of rhetorical boundaries to construct intra-racial othering within whiteness. This thesis expands this project by exploring the multiple ways in which the rhetorical boundary “redneck” is used in popular culture to distinguish certain types of white Americans from mainstream, middle-class whiteness. More specifically, this project looks at the ways in which the rhetorical boundary redneck is utilized in the narratives of popular culture; including such sites as the humor of Jeff Foxworthy, the Summer Redneck Games, and the CMT television series My Big Redneck Wedding. After conducting an in-depth qualitative analysis of each cultural site the rhetorical boundary redneck proves to be a term that, while possessing some level of ambiguity, nonetheless serves to distinguish whites along boundaries of education, status, class, region, and gender. I conclude by arguing that the most consistent macro-level boundary used to distinguish the redneck from the non-redneck is the binary culture/nature; with rednecks being constructed as fundamentally pre-modern and lacking the cultural tools necessary to survive and thrive in the (post)modern world.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Spencer, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American studies|Social structure
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