Abstract

This essay addresses the public memory of the Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise, Alabama, as an exemplar of Southern liberal kitsch, a memory practice articulating regional identity through a playful discourse of progress that secures whiteness and deflects confrontation with historical racial injustice. Through a combination of archival research and fieldwork during the centennial celebration of the Boll Weevil Monument in 2019, I identify three rhetorical quirks underwriting Boll Weevil public memory that inform broader efforts to reimagine the past in greater service to contemporary political exigencies.Editor Content Warning: This essay contains descriptions of racial violence.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2021-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2020.1841275
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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