Resumen de Contemporary Southern oratory: a rhetoric of hope, not desperation
Emerging consensus has it that Southern oratory is “heavily myth‐encrusted.” Using this assumption as a starting point, this essay considers the traditional characteristics of Southern oratory and, as others have done previously, dismisses most as “obscuring legend.” Emerging as the overriding characteristic of Southern oratory in an earlier period is the quality of desperation. Against this background is juxtaposed a consideration of contemporary Southern oratory, concluding that the latter is essentially optimistic. It is characterized by an aversion to the past rhetoric of desperation and lost causes, by a spirit of renewal, and with a focus which is decidedly futuristic.
