Voices of the other(s): Internal orientalism and the construction of Southern identities in the United States.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation employs the theoretical perspective of internal orientalism to explain the process by which the imagined spaces of "America" and "the South" are produced. The spatial construction of a national identity is emphasized: a positive national identity is created by representations of a subordinate region as fundamentally different from and inferior to the rest of the country. Representations of this region as backward, intolerant, and poor simultaneously produce a national identity that signifies tolerance, prosperity, and modernity.
The dissertation research sought to explore the extent to which internal orientalism influenced the conceptualization of "Southern" identity among two groups of people: African Americans in Lynchburg, Virginia, and members of the League of the South (formerly the Southern League), a "Southern" nationalist organization. These groups comprised voices of the "other" in the discourse of internal orientalism, as "the South" is the other to the self of "America". A consideration of the voices of the other demonstrates the crucial role of contestation and resistance in the reproduction of internal orientalism. Interviews were conducted with these two groups. The results revealed the prominence of three major themes: truth, resistance, and moral geographies.
Internal orientalism produces "truths" that not only rationalize and justify the ontological assumptions of the discourse, but also shape the formation and assimilation of new knowledge. Resistance and contestation are shown to be an inherent part of internal orientalism. Imagined moral geographies are a central aspect of the understanding of "Southern" society of individuals and inform their responses to the discourse.
Among the implications of internal orientalism is that the spatiality of national identity is uneven, in the sense that the archetypal national identity does not apply equally to the entire imagined space of the nation. Thus a regional group may occupy second-class status in the imagined community of the nation. The power of internal orientalism to shape understandings of injustice means that political movements may have to re-imagine the political geography of the state in order to most effectively pursue goals of social justice. This research also suggests that the discourse of internal orientalism can survive the fading of the material conditions that were associated with its origins. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).