The Meanings of Kansas: Rhetoric, Regions, and Counter Regions

Tell, Dave

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Issue Date

2012-06

Author

Tell, Dave

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

Type

Article

Article Version

Scholarly/refereed, author accepted manuscript

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Abstract

This essay uses the Kansas reception of Truman Capote's 1966 In Cold Blood to reflect on processes of regionalism and resistance. Noting that Capote and In Cold Blood were articulated quite differently in different portions of the state of Kansas, I explain how Kansans used a text that was imposed on them to craft for themselves regional identities of their own making. I call these “counter regions,” a term I coin to emphasize that region making is an important, if often overlooked, ingredient in practices of cultural resistance.

Description

This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in the RHETORIC QUARTERLY © 2012 Taylor & Francis; RHETORIC QUARTERLY is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrsq20.

Citation

Tell Dave. “The Meanings of Kansas: Rhetoric, Regions, and Counter Regions.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 42.5 (2012):214-232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2012.682843

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