On the surface these authors employ vastly different methodologies: John Lowe’s expansive historical study is firmly grounded in close reading and textual analysis, and Jon Smith’s more pointed critique uses psychoanalytic and marketing theories to explore a range of cultural production from country music and literature to hipster fashion. However, Lowe and Smith agree on the need for new frameworks and approaches to Southern studies that are grounded in reality, as opposed to disciplinary fantasies, and that fully acknowledge the flux of the field. While Lowe focuses on the connections between the cultures of the US South and the Caribbean and Smith focuses on the relationship between New Southern studies, old Southern studies, and American studies, both interrogate the dominance of place in Southern studies and seek to disrupt our understanding of place and its relationship to time.
Calypso Magnolia argues that Southern cultural production has always transcended the South’s...
