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Queering the South on Screen
Within the realm of American culture and its construction of its citizenry, geography, and ideology, who are southerners and who are queers, and what is the South and what is queerness? Queering the South on Screen addresses these questions by examining the intersections of queerness, regionalism, and identity depicted in film, television, and other visual media about the South during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Southern queers on screen often reflect the fantasy of cultural stereotypes. Editor Tison Pugh contends that when southern queers appear in films and on television, and when southern queers watch these portrayals, the inherent contradictions of these cultural depictions reveal the fault lines of gender, geography, and desire. These underlying schisms point to the infinite, if infrequently portrayed, possibilities of actual queer southern life.
Examining a range of materials, including gothic horror films and drag queens on public-access television, the contributors show that queer southerners have always expressed desires for distinctiveness in the making and consumption of visual media. Read together, the introduction and twelve chapters deconstruct premeditated labels of identity such as queer and southern. In doing so, they expose the reflexive nature of these labels to construct ideological fantasies of southerners regardless of the complexity of their lives.
Southern queers on screen often reflect the fantasy of cultural stereotypes. Editor Tison Pugh contends that when southern queers appear in films and on television, and when southern queers watch these portrayals, the inherent contradictions of these cultural depictions reveal the fault lines of gender, geography, and desire. These underlying schisms point to the infinite, if infrequently portrayed, possibilities of actual queer southern life.
Examining a range of materials, including gothic horror films and drag queens on public-access television, the contributors show that queer southerners have always expressed desires for distinctiveness in the making and consumption of visual media. Read together, the introduction and twelve chapters deconstruct premeditated labels of identity such as queer and southern. In doing so, they expose the reflexive nature of these labels to construct ideological fantasies of southerners regardless of the complexity of their lives.
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Published April 15, 2020
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About the author
Tison Pugh
50 books12 followersTison Pugh is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Queering Medieval Genres and Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle English Literature and has published on children’s literature in such journals as Children’s Literature, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Marvels and Tales.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 25, 2020
Full disclosure, I bought a copy of this book because my dear friend Rosser is on the front cover as his most famous character, DeAundra Peek. The final chapter in the book is 100% dedicated to Rosser's journey as DeAundra (and other quirky characters) on Atlanta public access TV in the 80's and 90's, in clubs around Atlanta, and at Wigstock in NYC each year during the 90's. Author Pugh does a great job celebrating one of the kookiest drag characters ever, DeAundra Peek. Yaaaaayyyyyyyyy!
April 8, 2020
Queering the South on Screen, edited by Tison Pugh, is an enlightening collection of essays that offer both queer readings of some films as well as a reframing of what it means to be an "other" within a region that is often considered (even by itself) as "other."
Though this is an academic work the essays are accessible for the nonacademic reader interested in the topic. Like any nonfiction worth its weight, a first reading should be just that, a first reading. It is usually subsequent readings where connections are made both within the text and between the text and the reader's own background.
Rather than try to highlight every essay, I will mention two things in particular that I took away from my initial reading. The first is rather small in the context of the book but is one of those things we need to be reminded of occasionally. In the discussion of The Fugitive Kind David Markus mentions that while the movie was largely a flop (or at least grossly underperformed) viewing it from the perspective of several decades later gives the movie a new relevance. This is something I think we often forget even though it is why we reread books and rewatch films. This reminder has served to make me want to revisit a number of works that I think I need to.
Second is the essay on the Southern Gothic Film by R Bruce Brasell. This overview is, I think, a wonderful introduction to the genre and brings out the lineage of both works and people tied to the genre. Far too often we tend to have an understanding of something but would be hard pressed to actually articulate what that thing is in any kind of detail. While this essay may not be THE definitive statement of what the genre is, it is a very good statement for those both new to film study as well as those who may have become a little lax in their use of terms.
As part of the South on Screen series from the University of Georgia Press this volume is a valuable addition to the discussion of what, exactly, is "queerness" or "southernness." In addition to those interested in those broader topics I think any reader who enjoys looking at film from different and new perspectives will find a lot to like in these readings of film (and public access TV).
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
Though this is an academic work the essays are accessible for the nonacademic reader interested in the topic. Like any nonfiction worth its weight, a first reading should be just that, a first reading. It is usually subsequent readings where connections are made both within the text and between the text and the reader's own background.
Rather than try to highlight every essay, I will mention two things in particular that I took away from my initial reading. The first is rather small in the context of the book but is one of those things we need to be reminded of occasionally. In the discussion of The Fugitive Kind David Markus mentions that while the movie was largely a flop (or at least grossly underperformed) viewing it from the perspective of several decades later gives the movie a new relevance. This is something I think we often forget even though it is why we reread books and rewatch films. This reminder has served to make me want to revisit a number of works that I think I need to.
Second is the essay on the Southern Gothic Film by R Bruce Brasell. This overview is, I think, a wonderful introduction to the genre and brings out the lineage of both works and people tied to the genre. Far too often we tend to have an understanding of something but would be hard pressed to actually articulate what that thing is in any kind of detail. While this essay may not be THE definitive statement of what the genre is, it is a very good statement for those both new to film study as well as those who may have become a little lax in their use of terms.
As part of the South on Screen series from the University of Georgia Press this volume is a valuable addition to the discussion of what, exactly, is "queerness" or "southernness." In addition to those interested in those broader topics I think any reader who enjoys looking at film from different and new perspectives will find a lot to like in these readings of film (and public access TV).
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews