The mask of memory : white racial fantasy after the Civil War / Jason R. Young

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Young, Jason R., Author.

Series:

Boundless South

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Southern States--History.

Slavery.

Collective memory--Southern States.

Collective memory.

Plantation life--Southern States--History.

Plantation life.

Southern States.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2026]

Summary:

"Many of the sights and sounds that Americans associate with slavery are rooted in a grand historical myth. The image of the Big House, sitting atop carefully manicured rolling green hills is, in large part, a fantasy--as is the idea of the plantation as an expansive family home to chivalrous planters and happy slaves. Still, these myths persist. Jason R. Young explores the persistence of these myths and the historical memory of slavery by focusing on the elite white mythmakers who helped shape our understanding of slavery. In the early twentieth century, a group of white writers, artists, and performers from the cultural hub of Charleston, South Carolina, created and curated a highly sanitized view of slavery. They imagined a once and future plantation society that would reestablish them as the proper heirs of the slave past. In the process, they crafted a set of dangerously durable and virulent stereotypes about slavery. Focusing on literature, art, and performance, Young examines both the power and the folly of these ideas. In uncovering the origins of these racial myths, The Mask of Memory resists these racial fantasies and challenges their stubborn resurgence in our own time"-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Cutting a path through Carolina : mapping South Carolina’s racial (il)logics

The color of sound : the society for the preservation of spirituals and the politics of authenticity

An antebellum Eden : memoir and the making of a meaningful past

Writing the past-perfect : slavery and memory in letters and literature

Setting the plantation scene : the visual logics of slavery

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (JSTOR, viewed June 22, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Young, Jason R. Mask of memory

ISBN:

9781469684529

1469684527

9781469694368

1469694360

9781469694375

1469694379

OCLC:

1597324157

Publisher Number:

CIPO000367033

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license