Defining Appalachian Culture

Abstract

Nancy and Loyal Jones Defining Appalachian Culture Richard B. Drake Hello. Welcome to "Old Home Week" honoring Loyal Jones. I am Richard Drake, and perhaps it is appropriate that I introduce you to this symposium and its honorée, Loyal Jones, whom I welcomed twentythree years ago to the Berea College faculty. And then there are these other "newcomers" to Berea who are your hosts—Gerald Roberts and Tom Kirk, newcomers to a person who remembers Perley Ayer, Helen Dingman, Francis Hutchins, and others who were on this staff when I arrived in 1956. Welcome to this celebration of the Appalachian conversation and this symposium honoring the service of Loyal Jones, to the Appalachian Center here, to Berea College, and to the Appalachian region. I am reminded of a survey I made of colleagues here at Berea a few years ago when I asked the resident regional experts—about twelve of them, as I remember—how they defined "Appalachia." No two definitions were alike, and the two sociologists in my survey, in fact, came to opposite conclusions about whether or not there was an Appalachian culture. Allen Batteau and many others have explored the question of Appalachian separateness—Appalachia vs. America—of the degree to which Appalachians are really different from ordinary Americans. Are we in the region really separate? Are we set apart by a "colonial status" within the generally capitalist structure of the nation; or by some basic traditional values that separate us from modern materialism; or are we Richard B. Drake, retired professor of history at Berea College, chaired the afternoon session of the symposium. separated by particular traits—usually negative ones such as violence, lack of formal education, poverty, "warrior role as a peripheral people," or some lack of power and pretentiousness—that separate us from "Progressive Americans?" Clearly, Appalachia is a complex region that defies easy generalization. But are we any closer to a clear and convincing depiction of the region than we were ten years ago? Or twenty years ago? Or thirty years ago? One really can argue that we are no closer to this clear definition tlian we were thirty years ago! Certainly if the recent notoriety of Robert Schenkkan's Pulitzer Prize-winning Kentucky Cycle is any indication, we may be back to square one. I have not read or seen Schenkkan's play; and if I had, I probably would not be equipped to comment wisely upon a drama of such heroic dimensions. But ifwe are to take seriously Jim Wayne Miller's evaluation of "The Kentucky (Re)Cycle" in the Spring 1993 issue of Appalachian Heritage and Wilma Dykeman's evaluation of its Broadway debut (in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, November 28, 1993), Appalachian Studies still has a long way to go. In the words of Jim Wayne Miller: I have a sickening sense of deja vu. There is nothing new or challenging here as one might expect from a work that is the recipient of a prestigious award. . . . The fact that the controversy regarding the play focuses on whether or not Appalachia is employed as a metaphor for the larger American experience is indicative about the relationship of the region to the rest of the country. The entire Appalachian region has had for well over a century a high profile in the mental geography of Americans and in our popular culture . . . On the one hand the region has been seen as a repository of fundamentally wholesome American values from William Frost to Loyal Jones; on the other hand, as the quintessentially "other" America, representing the antithesis of progress and civilization—from William Byrd to Robert Schenkkan. As Yogi Berra would say, "It's deja vu all over again." How far have we come? Will we ever get a clear and convincing picture of Appalachia? And who is best suited to understand this complex and challenging region? Insider or outsider? Scholar or activist? Literary critic, artist, or historian? I wonder! The encouraging thing to me about the scholarship of the last two decades is the breadth and depth of what Gurney Norman calls the Appalachian conversation. The Appalachian Studies Conferences are an indication of this, as are the many excellent...