University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2014 The Life And Songwriting Of Vic Chesnutt John Hermann University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hermann, John, "The Life And Songwriting Of Vic Chesnutt" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 885. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/885 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 LIFE AND SONGWRITING OF VIC CHESNUTT A Thesis Presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Southern Studies The University of Mississippi by John Hermann May 2014 Copyright © 2014 by John Hermann All rights reserved ABSTRACT This thesis is an exploration of the life and music of Vic Chesnutt, and it accompanies a documentary film. Both components feature interview excerpts from over 30 hours of film footage with Chesnutt, as interspersed with archival documents of his life, along with dozens of interviews with his family, friends, peers, music writers, and bandmates. Chesnutt’s story can only be properly told through the lens of southern culture. He was not just a charter member of an international group, but a southern songwriter whose rural Georgia upbringing was paramount to his work. He has often been compared in music journals to the southern gothic schoolmates of William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers, placing his songs in the context of southern writers.