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In contemporary culture, the stereotypical trappings of "redneckism" have been appropriatedfor everything from movies like Smokey and the Bandit to comedy acts like Larry theCable Guy. Even a recent president, George W. Bush, shunned his patrician pedigree in favorof cowboy "authenticity" to appeal to voters. Whether identified with hard work and patriotismor with narrow-minded bigotry, the Redneck and its variants have become firmlyestablished in American narrative consciousness.This provocative book traces the emergence of the faux-Redneck within the context ofliterary and cultural studies. Examining the icon's foundations in James Fenimore Cooper'sNatty Bumppo-"an ideal white man, free of the boundaries of civilization"-and the degradedrural poor of Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Matthew Ferrence shows how Redneckstereotypes were further extended in Deliverance, both the novel and the film, and ina popular cycle of movies starring Burt Reynolds in the 1970s and '80s, among other manifestations.As a contemporary cultural figure, the author argues, the Redneck representsno one in particular but offers a model of behavior and ideals for many. Most important,it has become a tool-reductive, confining, and (sometimes, almost) liberating-by whichelite forces gather and maintain social and economic power. Those defying its boundaries,as the Dixie Chicks did when they criticized President Bush and the Iraq invasion, havedone so at their own peril. Ferrence contends that a refocus of attention to the complexrealities depicted in the writings of such authors as Silas House, Fred Chappell, Janisse Ray,and Trudier Harris can help dislodge persistent stereotypes and encourage more nuancedunderstandings of regional identity.In a cultural moment when so-called Reality Television has turned again toward popularimages of rural Americans (as in, for example,... Duck Dynasty and Moonshiners), All-American Redneck reveals the way in which such images have long been manipulated forparticular social goals, almost always as a means to solidify the position of the powerful atthe expense of the regional.Matthew J. Ferrence is an assistant professor of English at Allegheny College.
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