What Is Southern?

A friend gave me an issue of Gourmet magazine last summer. It was their Southern food issue, which meant, of course, a lot of cocktails, a lot of riffs on classic Southern dishes, and a lot of John T. I'd recently read an article in the Oxford American about Gourmet's historical relationship with Southern food, describing how it has, through the years, almost exoticized our down-home cuisine. Well, be that as it may--I don't read Gourmet enough to know--what I found in this particular issue was this gem: an essay written by Edna Lewis entitled "What Is Southern?" Now, as any scholar of the South (sort of, sometimes) I am skeptical of this type of essay. Will it be a long list of moonlight and magnolia-laden cliches? Will I feel like an outsider unless I happen to have my 14-inch waist laced tightly into a corset and hoop skirt while reading? 

No. Edna Lewis, in her understated way, makes the simple seductive in this essay that links food, farming, literature, and memoir. I assign it in my composition classes to discuss cliches, reviews, memoir, etc.--it is perfect for so many lessons, and they usually love it, because they can relate to it. I ask them to read it, then spend ten minutes composing their own "Southern is" essay modeling her prose. I had to laugh this past week, however--when I told my students what their reading assignment was, one looked at me with the same skeptical look I reserved for such essay titles and said "It's called 'What Is Southern?' Is it going to make fun of us?" I assured them it would not, and what's more, it would praise their--our--region in new ways.

Read this essay if you get a free moment today (just click on the title to this post to be linked to it) and let me now what you think. I'll be using it in class tomorrow and I'd love some fresh takes on it. (I linked the full version, but if it seems short, scroll down to the right corner to see which page you're on--I still haven't fully figured out this computer!) Enjoy!