Circling Dixie

HELEN TAYLOR is a professor and head of the School of English at the University of Exeter. She is the author of Scarlett's Women (Rutgers University Press), and coeditor of Dixie Debates.

In Circling Dixie, a professor from the University of Exeter in England analyzes the fascination of the British with all things United-States Southern. The author examines the how and why that have caused Southern culture to become deeply embedded in British cultural life and how the reproduction of Southern cultural commodities has transformed those products within a British context. Particularly enjoyable is Taylor's discussion of New Orleans, America's European masterpiece. (Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi Valley) Graceful and subtle in its prose, Helen Taylor's Circling Dixie is a great pleasure to read. - Richard H. King (University of Nottingham) We knew that the British were fascinated with the tragic, gothic American South. This remarkable book not only documents the degree of that fascination, but also demonstrates the deep interconnectedness of two cultures. Here is an irresistible new case study for those interested in the form and function of hybridity. - Jane Gaines (Program in Film and Video, Duke University) The author's research on the way Southern themes and icons have slipped into everyday life across the Atlantic is impressive. There is no doubt that Circling Dixie will find a sophisticated audience both in the United States and in Europe. - Linda Wagner-Martin (author of Favored Strangers": Gertrude Stein and Her Family)