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June 12, 2014 — Matthew J. Ferrence, an assistant professor of English at Allegheny College, has published a new book with the University of Tennessee Press, “All-American Redneck: Variations on an Icon, From James Fenimore Cooper to the Dixie Chicks.”

An insightful examination of the faux redneck within the context of literary and cultural studies, “All-American Redneck” traces the icon’s foundations in James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumppo, as well as the downtrodden rural lifestyle in Erskine Caldwell’s “Tobacco Road.”

Matthew Ferrence argues that the redneck stereotype represents no one in particular but offers a model of behavior and ideals for many. More important, it has become a tool—reductive, confining and liberating—by which the privileged gather and maintain social and economic power.

Ferrence argues that refocusing our attention to the complex realities depicted in the writings of such authors as Silas House and Fred Chappell can help dissolve tireless stereotypes and provoke a more sensible understanding of regional identity. In an age when reality television shows such as “Duck Dynasty” and “Moonshiners” depict rural Americans, Ferrence shines a light on the manipulation that occurs in order to reinforce the elite at the expense of the rural masses.

Photo by Harmony Motter