Southern Appalachia Considered from a Postcolonial Perspective

By Rodger Cunningham
Department of English, Alice Lloyd College

It is true that the Southern Appalachian region of the United States is basically a European settler colony like the rest of the country, albeit with significant Native survivals, an unusual degree of European-Native mixture, a significant (and often neglected) African population, and a number of old communities of obscurely mixed ethnic origins. However, from a postcolonial perspective, its main difference from the other regions of the United States lies in how it was both economically colonized and semiotically "othered" in interlocking movements both during and, mainly, after it was settled.

The process of othering and abjection began at the moment of first European settlement, if not indeed centuries before.

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Note: There will be further blog entries on Harry Caudill, to whom I may well be related, and his seminal book, Night Comes to the Cumberlands, which are both mention in the article.