At the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, we drop in on a history class called “Dolly Parton’s America.” (We borrowed the name for our series!) Taught by Dr. Lynn Sacco, the class is filled with college students who grew up in rural Appalachia, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. Dr Sacco gives the class an assignment: Write an essay that answers the question “What is Dolly Parton’s America?” Lurking just behind that question are thornier ones about Southern shame and identity and hillbillies and football and...well, Dolly. Is Dolly helping or hurting us? The class splits down the middle. Editor’s Note: We made two corrections to this podcast, originally released on December 3. In referring to the location of the Battle of Blair Mountain, we changed “Southwestern Virginia” to “West Virginia.” And on the origin of the term redneck, we inserted narration that makes clear that the etymology of the term goes back farther than the Battle of Blair Mountain.
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Hi, I'm Shima Oliayi, the producer of Dolly Partons America.
Before we jump into today's episode, I wanted to give a large, big, loud thank you to everyone who's been listening, enjoying telling your friends about it.
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Anyway, thank you again so much for listening and onto the show.
I'm Chad Abumrad.
This is Dolly Parton's America.
Episode seven, Dolly Partons America.
A cycle of condemnation and salvation.
In the next two episodes, we're going to tackle some of the trickier aspects of the Dollyverse.
The hillbilly is a caricature of Appalachian stereotypes.
Questions about the south, who moonshines for.
A living, doesn't know how to read identity and likely has sex with his cousin.
And there's no mention of slavery.
This is part of the reason why Charlottesville happened.
Race.
We'll take on some of that in this episode, some in the next.