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The English of the southern United States is possibly the most studied of any regional variety of any language because of its rich internal diversity, its distinctiveness among regional varieties in the United States, its significance as a marker of regional identity, and the general folkloric appeal of southern culture. However, most, if not all, books about Southern American English have been directed almost exclusively toward scholars already working in the field. This 2003 volume, written by a team of experts, many of them internationally known, provides a broad overview of the foundations of and research on language variation in the southern United States designed to invite inquiry and inquirers. It explores historical and cultural elements, iconic contemporary features, and changes in progress. Central themes, issues and topics of scholarly investigation and debate figure prominently throughout the volume. The extensive bibliography will facilitate continued research.
Over the years, the phrase “southern oratory” has become laden with myth; its mere invocation conjures up powerful images of grandiloquent antebellum patriarchs, enthusiastic New South hucksters, and raving wild-eyed demagogue politicians. In these essays, Waldo Braden strips away the myths to expose how the South’s orators achieved their rhetorical effects and manipulated their audiences. The Oral Tradition in the South begins with two essays that trace the roots of the South’s particular identification with oratory. In “The Emergence of the Concept of Southern Oratory, 1850–1950,” Braden suggests that it was through the influence of southern scholars that southern oratory gained its renown. The second essay, “The Oral Tradition in the Old South,” focuses on antebellum times to reveal the several factors that combined to make the region a fertile ground for oratory. Braden further explores the antebellum oratorical tradition in “The 1860 Election Campaign in Western Tennessee,” analyzing speeches made in Memphis by such national figures as William L. Yancey, Andrew Johnson, and Stephen A. Douglas, and revealing the nature of political canvassing in that era. Shifting his discussion to the years that followed the Civil War, Braden examines. in “Myths in a Rhetorical Context,” how such speakers as General John B. Gordon and Henry Grady worked to restore the shattered self-esteem of the region by spinning myths of the Old South and the Lost Cause and by proclaiming the hopeful era of the New South. The fifth essay, “The Rhetoric of Exploitation,” probes the rhetorical strategies of the demagogue politicians of the twentieth century-strategies such as “plain folks” appeals and race-baiting. In the final essay, “The Rhetoric of a Closed Society.” Braden analyzes the movement opposing racial integration in Mississippi. Showing how the White Citizens’ Council, Governor Ross Barnett, and other leaders manipulated the public to make the state a closed society from 1954 to 1964. Although he takes pains to establish the historical context in each of these essays, Braden’s emphasis as a rhetorical critic is always on the speeches themselves. He pays close attention to the kinds of appeals found in the words of the speeches and to the individual speaker’s use of images and phrases to evoke particular myths. But Braden looks beyond the texts of the speeches to take into account the full context of the event. “What the reader finds in the printed version of the text,” he explains, “might be only a small part of the myth, a tiny hint of what grinds inside frustrated listeners. Sometimes the trigger for the myth does not even appear in the printed version, because face-to-face the listeners and the speaker, feeling a oneness, evoke the myth without verbal expression.” To account for this nonverbal dimension of oratory, these essays assess the impact of the location and atmosphere of the gathering, the audience’s expectations, and the speaker’s use of ritual, symbolic gestures, and props. During the nearly forty years of his career, Waldo Braden has been a pioneer in the serious study of oratory. A landmark work, The Oral Tradition in the South is the capstone to a distinguished career, a comprehensive and authoritative study of the subject Braden has so innovatively researched.
Conflict over moral, religious, social, political, and economic values fuel social movements. People form organized collectivities to promote or to oppose changes in societal norms and values. The steady growth in globalization and access to information have increased the perception of threats to identity, values, and culture. Persuasion and Social Movements provides a solid foundation for understanding how people collectively shape society. The latest edition marks three decades of synthesizing, applying, and extending research and theories about the persuasive efforts of social movements. Historic and current examples illustrate the many facets of social movement persuasion: Persuasion is inherently practical; we can study it most profitably by examining the functions of persuasive acts. Even apparently irrational acts make sense to the actoreffective analysis discovers the reasoning behind the acts. People create and comprehend their world through symbols, and it is people who create, use, ignore, or act on these symbolic creations. Although they remain important in social movement persuasion, speeches are now one of many resources for organizing and carrying out a variety of protests. New technologies have transformed how social movements come into existence, constitute organizations, establish coalitions, pressure institutions, and communicate with a wide variety of audiences. Social movements sometimes sell conspiracy theories to skeptical audiences, justify inherently divisive tactics, and use violence as a rhetorical strategy. Institutions and countermovements have a variety of strategies for resistance.
The fifth volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores language and dialect in the South, including English and its numerous regional variants, Native American languages, and other non-English languages spoken over time by the region's immigrant communities. Among the more than sixty entries are eleven on indigenous languages and major essays on French, Spanish, and German. Each of these provides both historical and contemporary perspectives, identifying the language's location, number of speakers, vitality, and sample distinctive features. The book acknowledges the role of immigration in spreading features of Southern English to other regions and countries and in bringing linguistic influences from Europe and Africa to Southern English. The fascinating patchwork of English dialects is also fully presented, from African American English, Gullah, and Cajun English to the English spoken in Appalachia, the Ozarks, the Outer Banks, the Chesapeake Bay Islands, Charleston, and elsewhere. Topical entries discuss ongoing changes in the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of English in the increasingly mobile South, as well as naming patterns, storytelling, preaching styles, and politeness, all of which deal with ways language is woven into southern culture.
An outgrowth of the Language Variety in the South III symposium, New Perspectives on Language Variety in the South: Historical and Contemporary Approaches comprises forty-five original essays on a range of topics regarding the languages and dialects of the American South. Book jacket.
"Collection of essays that reassesses history as rhetoric and rhetorical history as practice "--
The thirty years prior to the Civil War were flamboyant and fiery times for the South. People had a passion for political issues and an ear for the lusty oratory that could be heard at any gathering, social or political. In Oratory in the Old South, Waldo Braden and his associates looked past the popular myths of that era and uncovered the true nature of the oratory of the times.In this sequel to that earlier volume, Braden and seven other speech scholars examine the oratory of accommodation that dominated the southern forum in the post-Civil War years. Speakers of this era, they find, had to overcome problems of spirit and morale; their challenge was to build up the political and personal confidence of a people who were defeated. By the same token, these speakers had to adapt their oratory to outside influences that had the power to exert military pressure, withhold funds, and employ negative political coercion. The eight essays of the book are developed topically, and the issues of racism, women's rights, states' rights, industrialization, and education are delineated as they weave into the developing story of the New South. Among the topics dealt with are the promotion of cultural myths, the tactics of Henry W. Grady as a propagandist for the New South, the oratory of the United Confederate Veterans, and the emergence of women as speakers for reform.The oft-repeated myths and encouragements of the orators helped giver southerners the distinction they thought lost, a sense of nationalism. Once created, this cohesive regionalism wrought a power, pride, and prestige so strong that they defied challenge and made many southerners impervious to change and progress until well after 1950. Oratory in the New South reveals many sources of the South's modern self-concept and stands as a unique account of this formative period.