Culture, myth, and ideology as public argument: An interpretation of the ascent and demise of “Southern culture”;

Abstract

This essay explores the complex relationships between culture, myth, and ideology and their expression in public argument. Myth provides the unique, characteristic “polarizing image”; around which elements of a culture coalesce. As culture is subjected to criticism, however, ideology emerges as an appropriate cultural form which “justifies”; that particular world view. A culture under increasing attack grants a preeminence to ideology that imbues it with mythic qualities such that it now redefines the polarizing image, hence, the culture itself. This analysis is used to explain the development and demise of “Southern Culture.”;

Notes

V. William Balthrop is Assistant Professor of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. An earlier version of this essay was presented at the SCA Regional Seminar on Ideology and Public Argument held in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 20, 1983.