{"product_id":"southerners-acting-southern-on-celebrities-and-their-star-personas-in-the-imagined-south-9780807183984","title":"Southerners Acting Southern: On Celebrities and Their Star Personas in the Imagined South","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat is the difference between a star born in the South and a \"southern star\"? In \u003ci\u003eSoutherners Acting Southern, \u003c\/i\u003e Tison Pugh answers this intriguing question, pondering the ways in which some performers from the South metamorphose into southern stars by accentuating their geographic and cultural roots as key aspects of their star personas. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMany celebrities, particularly actors, seek to transcend their hometown roots in favor of achieving an \"all-American\" appeal, but some stars born in the South build their national and international fan base by emphasizing the southern aspects of their biography and by leaning into regional clich?s and stereotypes that percolate throughout the U.S. cultural imaginary. In turn, some southern stars trot out the region's hoariest tropes of fading belles, gullible country rubes, and the succors of southern hospitality only to reveal the shallowness of these stereotypes and of their celebrity personas as well. Covering more than one hundred years of cultural history, \u003ci\u003eSoutherners Acting Southern\u003c\/i\u003e allows readers to gauge the South's often-reluctant progress into modernity, including discussions on the intersection of race and celebrity for the region's Black stars and its increasing, if hesitant, embrace of queer ones. Chapters feature a wide-ranging selection of southern celebrities, including Louis Armstrong, Truman Capote, Elvis Presley, Tennessee Williams, Andy Griffith, Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Tom Petty, Gloria Estefan, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager, Ellen DeGeneres, Tyler Perry, Matthew McConaughey, Aziz Ansari, and Miley Cyrus. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eSoutherners Acting Southern\u003c\/i\u003e moves from past to present, from musicians to media personalities, discerning the ways in which southernness contributes to the building of personal celebrity. Altogether, this luminous work of cultural criticism reveals that southern stargazing, as much as it might initially appear a flighty pastime of overzealous fans, divulges deeper truths about the South, and the United States as a whole, that might otherwise pass unnoticed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Tison Pugh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e LSU Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/10\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e Southern Literary Studies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 276\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.19lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.75d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780807183984","brand":"LSU Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43914184753289,"sku":"9780807183984","price":69.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_46e53f33-fbef-40a3-8a88-7d89a5295aba.jpg?v=1745301269","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/southerners-acting-southern-on-celebrities-and-their-star-personas-in-the-imagined-south-9780807183984","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}