University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2015 The South According To Quentin Tarantino Michael Henley University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Henley, Michael, "The South According To Quentin Tarantino" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 887. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/887 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE SOUTH ACCORDING TO QUENTIN TARANTINO A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture The University of Mississippi by MICHAEL LEE HENLEY August 2015 Copyright Michael Lee Henley 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This thesis explores the filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s portrayal of the South and southerners in his films Pulp Fiction (1994), Death Proof (2007), and Django Unchained (2012). In order to do so, it explores and explains Tarantino’s mixture of genres, influences, and filmmaking styles in which he places the South and its inhabitants into current trends in southern studies which aim to examine the South as a place that is defined by cultural reproductions, lacking authenticity, and cultural distinctiveness. Like Godard before him, Tarantino’s movies are commentaries on film history itself. In short, Tarantino’s films actively reimagine the South and southerners in a way that is not nostalgic for a “southern way of life,” nor meant to exploit lower class whites.