The Real South

THE REAL SOUTH is a stimulating, cutting-edge study that explores the impact of globalization on contemporary southern culture and the South's persistence in an age of media and what the author terms "cultural reproduction." Rather than being compromised, he asserts, southern cultures are both complicated and reconfigured as they are increasingly detached from tradition in its conventional sense. In considering Souths that might appear fakethe South of the theme restaurant, commercial television, and popular regional magazines, for exampleRomine contends that authenticity and reality emerge as central concepts that allow groups and individuals to imagine and navigate social worlds. Less concerned with what actually constitutes an "authentic" or "real" South than with how these concepts are used today, THE REAL SOUTH explores a wide range of southern narratives that describe and travel through virtual, simulated, and commodified Souths.

Scott Romine is an associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.