Date of Award
2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Southern Studies
Department
Southern Studies
First Advisor
Kathryn McKee
Second Advisor
Megan Abbott
Third Advisor
Charles Reagan Wilson
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This thesis explores the concept of bestsellers in the twenty-first century, with a particular focus on six novels written by contemporary southern authors. These novels are analyzed through the lens of social consciousness, with attention to how they reflect current social issues, and how they engage with and subvert cultural and literary stereotypes. Bestsellers are books that are widely read, shared and discussed, often because they connect to concerns about identity; this study speculates on the influence of bestsellers on national and regional reader identity, specifically race, gender and class. Chapter I explores feminine roles in Lee Smith's The Last Girls and Jill McCorkle's Life After Life. Chapter II considers the exploitative qualities of religion and capitalism in Ron Rash's Serena and Wiley Cash's A Land More Kind Than Home. Chapter III looks at the tensions between authorship and race in Kathryn Stockett's The Help and Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Southern bestsellers reflect and shape the interests and concerns of readers, cultural shifts throughout the country, and the identity of the South in the twenty-first century.
Recommended Citation
Free, Jodie, "Southern Bestsellers In The Twenty-First Century" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 879.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/879