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Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878 (review)

Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878 (review) West Virginia History, N.S. 6, No.2, Fall 2012 Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878. By Emily Satterwhite. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2011. pp. 379.) Emily Satterwhite, in the appropriately titled Dear Appalachia, develops a substantive understanding of how the reading public, from 1878 to the present, interprets best-selling novels about the southern mountain region. And the author's methodology­what she terms "reception geographies"­is as intriguing as what she discovers. Through a rigorous study of both readers' reception of regional fiction (through fan mail) and their geographical relationship to Appalachia (inmigrants, out-migrants, regional elites, tourists, and missionaries), the author comes to a surprising conclusion: contemporary readers of "Appalachian-set" fiction have interpreted the region in much the same way as those who indulged in best-selling Appalachian works in 1878. The similarity in the reception of readers over time, Satterwhite suggests, may be due to the similarities between the Gilded Age (1865-1890) and the Neo-Gilded Age (1981-2003, roughly) in which regional literature saw increased popularity. The innovative methodology and the comparative study of Appalachian best sellers in two distinct but similar historical periods teases out reasons why Appalachian literature persists as a palliative to soothe national anxieties http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies West Virginia University Press

Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878 (review)

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Publisher
West Virginia University Press
Copyright
West Virginia University Press
ISSN
1940-5057
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Abstract

West Virginia History, N.S. 6, No.2, Fall 2012 Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878. By Emily Satterwhite. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2011. pp. 379.) Emily Satterwhite, in the appropriately titled Dear Appalachia, develops a substantive understanding of how the reading public, from 1878 to the present, interprets best-selling novels about the southern mountain region. And the author's methodology­what she terms "reception geographies"­is as intriguing as what she discovers. Through a rigorous study of both readers' reception of regional fiction (through fan mail) and their geographical relationship to Appalachia (inmigrants, out-migrants, regional elites, tourists, and missionaries), the author comes to a surprising conclusion: contemporary readers of "Appalachian-set" fiction have interpreted the region in much the same way as those who indulged in best-selling Appalachian works in 1878. The similarity in the reception of readers over time, Satterwhite suggests, may be due to the similarities between the Gilded Age (1865-1890) and the Neo-Gilded Age (1981-2003, roughly) in which regional literature saw increased popularity. The innovative methodology and the comparative study of Appalachian best sellers in two distinct but similar historical periods teases out reasons why Appalachian literature persists as a palliative to soothe national anxieties

Journal

West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies – West Virginia University Press

Published: Nov 7, 2012

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