Modern Times

Abstract

This chapter first describes how lyrics from Bob Dylan’s album Modern Times incorporated snippets from the poetry of Henry Timrod without attribution. It argues that even before the Civil War, Timrod personified an experience of defeat and self-recognition that would complement Dylan’s conception of modernity in Modern Times. The discussion then turns Ted Phillips’ book City of the Silent: The Charlestonians of Magnolia Cemetery and the postmodern renewal of Confederate remembrance. For Phillips, the lasting value of the Confederacy rested in its demonstration that shared remembrance might serve as a basis for everyday performance of community. He recognized that this collective memory was a form of fiction, and he addressed the quintessential fictionalization of the Confederate saga, Gone with the Wind, more thoroughly than he covered any military campaign.