Popular Literature: The Dirty South

The South has always been more than a place. It’s a narrative shaped by contradiction, creativity, and conflict. In this course, we’ll explore literature from and about the American South, tracing how writers and artists wrestle with history, power, memory, and belonging. Our texts will span genres and centuries, from Thomas Jefferson’s founding contradictions to the cultural criticism of Imani Perry, from the haunting fiction of Karen Russell and Jesmyn Ward to the lyrical interventions of OutKast and Childish Gambino. Treating music, performance, and popular culture as literary texts, the course asks who gets to tell the story of the South, how the past lingers in the present, and what this region reveals about America itself.