How Discovery Channel's Moonshiners Re-Presents and Revises Southern Appalachian Cultural Memory

Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English 8-12-2014 "You Ain't Got No Blueprint on It": How Discovery Channel's Moonshiners Re-Presents and Revises Southern Appalachian Cultural Memory Kelly Vines Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Recommended Citation Vines, Kelly, ""You Ain't Got No Blueprint on It": How Discovery Channel's Moonshiners Re-Presents and Revises Southern Appalachian Cultural Memory." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/174 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “YOU AIN’T GOT NO BLUEPRINT ON IT”: HOW DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S MOONSHINERS RE-PRESENTS AND REVISES SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN CULTURAL MEMORY by KELLY VINES Under the Direction of Dr. Gina Caison ABSTRACT This thesis investigates how performers on the television show Moonshiners challenge essentialist characterizations of the Appalachian South as a counterpoint to American nationalism. While many may believe that Moonshiners’ producers merely exploit regional identity to attract audiences, the performers claim a southern Appalachian heritage while redefining what it means to be a southern Appalachian person in the present moment. Furthermore, while the show relies on an imagined past South to create a genealogy that renders performers the authentic inheritors of moonshining’s cultural history, performers present a modern-day Appalachian South that participates in the national economy. Ultimately, my thesis explores how characters on the show use reality television to revise their audiences’ understanding of southern Appalachian people as “pre- or anti-modern,” encouraging audiences to recognize that while southern Appalachians still revere their cultural history, they adapt that cultural history to each new context. INDEX WORDS: American Studies, Southern studies, Cultural studies, Performance studies, Reality television, Appalachian studies, Discovery Channel, Moonshiners, moonshine “YOU AIN’T GOT NO BLUEPRINT ON IT”: HOW DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S MOONSHINERS RE-PRESENTS AND REVISES SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN CULTURAL MEMORY by KELLY VINES A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2014 Copyright by Kelly Renae Vines 2014 “YOU AIN’T GOT NO BLUEPRINT ON IT”: HOW DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S MOONSHINERS RE-PRESENTS AND REVISES SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN CULTURAL MEMORY by KELLY VINES Committee Chair: Gina Caison Committee: Mark Noble Chris Kocela Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2014 iv Dedication To my partner, William Burhenn, who introduced me to the show and patiently listened to me as I talked endlessly about this project; thank you for all of your love and support. To Douglas Vines, my grandfather, whose generosity was only surpassed by his profound love: “and whatever is done / by only me is your doing.” To my family: Becky Vines, James Fee, Casey Vines, Tyler Fee, Georgia Vines, and Scott Watkins, and all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who have helped me grow. This project is also dedicated to everyone who has shared their stories with me. This thesis was shaped by many more hands than my own. v Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Gina Caison for her dedication to this project. Dr. Caison’s graduate southern literature seminar both inspired this project and convinced me to pursue an M.A. and a Ph.D. in southern literature. I am eternally grateful for her advice and support. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Mark Noble and Dr. Chris Kocela who have provided me with guidance as I completed this project and professional advice as I begin my doctorate. I would also like to thank Dr. Randy Malamud, Dr. Malinda Snow, Dr. Marilynn Richtarik, Dr. Eddie Christie, Professor Dan Marshall, and many more members of Georgia State University’s English faculty for making me a better teacher and a better scholar. Lastly, I would like to thank Ms. Cynthia Cox for her encouragement and support; I would not be where I am without her help. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2 2 A Brief History of Moonshining in Appalachia ..................................................... 12 3 Moonshiners as Simulation: Real Moonshiners, the Historical Narrative, and the Television Show ......................................................................................................... 24 4 “We Don’t Want a Dying History”: Moonshining as Archive and Repertoire .. 34 5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 51 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................... 55 2 1 Introduction Premiering in 2011 on the Discovery Channel, Moonshiners follows contemporary southern Appalachian moonshiners as they set up their equipment, procure ingredients, brew, and sell moonshine. While the show might seem like another trivial reality television show, my thesis argues that reality television—and Moonshiners in particular—serves an important cultural function. The show celebrates Appalachia (and the U.S. South by extension) as an anti- authoritarian region—a position demonstrated through the subversive act of moonshine production. However, by featuring one of the main characters “going legal,” Moonshiners also challenges the essentialist stereotypes about southern Appalachian people and the region’s unofficial economies. While the show’s subjects depend on representations of stereotypical moonshiners for authenticity (and, occasionally reinforce those stereotypes with their actions), they also challenge existing stereotypes about southern Appalachians in general, and moonshiners in particular. By performing in front of television cameras, the moonshiners on the show also redefine the act of moonshining. Moonshiners, then, imagines and re-presents signs of a past South in order to modify those signs. When moonshiners create liquor in the daylight, literally speaking, that liquor cannot be moonshine. Legally produced moonshine challenges the very definition of moonshine as “smuggled or illicitly produced alcoholic liquor,” (OED) but the product still signifies the countercultural economic system that historically produced it. My thesis investigates how the television show, by depicting “legal moonshine,” both upholds and challenges an essentialist notion of Appalachia as a counterpoint to American nationalism—“a land ‘in but not of’ America, an ‘internal other,’ dependent on the patriarchal rescuing of the federal state […] a place that is lawless, backward, and somehow pre- or anti-modern” (Peine and Schafft). I 3 investigate how Moonshiners relies on the signs of an imagined past South, but presents a contemporary South that embraces modernity. While the show may depict present-day southern Appalachians who are characterized by their obsession with heritage and who obsessively re- perform inherited identity1, the show’s performers often challenge essentialist characterizations. Ultimately, the show envisions present-day Appalachia as a place where heritage is important, but not a place where global issues are irrelevant. The ability of reality television stars to challenge long-held beliefs about southern Appalachian people and their unofficial economies demonstrates the capability of popular television to modify public perceptions of regional identities. While contemporary scholars have recently reimagined what might constitute a canon of southern literature, few have turned a critical eye toward newer forms of media. Because the production of Moonshiners involves “authentic” southern Appalachian men engaging in a cultural ritual while simultaneously producing new products to sell in different venues, my thesis embraces interdisciplinary methods. My thesis incorporates many interdisciplinary studies to thoroughly analyze how the producers of Moonshiners interpolate history, economics, and culture, and what that interpolation might mean to contemporary audiences. By studying Moonshiners as a southern text, my thesis investigates how popular television shows featuring distinctly southern subjects might challenge established essentialist notions about the U.S. South. Theodor Adorno, and, more recently, Jon Smith and Donald Pease, outline the type of cultural study that this thesis undertakes. Adorno and his contemporaries explore how a subversive movement loses authenticity after becoming mainstream. Pease examines the ideological and 1 By “inherited identity,” I am referring to the set of behavioral characteristics and customs that have been “passed down” or learned from previous generations. The term is related to Richard Schechner’s “twice-behaved behavior,” (36) and Diana Taylor’s performances that “function as vital acts of transfer, transmitting social knowledge,

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