Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - László Dányi: On the Bad Side of the Fence: Fiascos of Southern Ethos

landmarks, would rather form a link than a border between the two regions. The other factor which could prove the otherness of the South has become the "peculiar institution." However, slavery as an institution and not as reminiscence is related to the antebellum, pre-Civil War era, and even within that time span the controversial slavery issue alone in itself cannot vindicate the uniqueness of the South without considering the attendant social, sociological, political, ideological and historical ramifications. Nevertheless, I admit that the reminiscence of slavery triggers discussions about such opposing tendencies and counter-images as sentimental ism, nostalgia, and heroism versus violence, racism, caste, and xenophobia either in the dominant white society or the African American community of the South, or in both. To sum it up, the question of slavery overlaps time, space and disciplines and the reminiscence of slavery provokes thoughts and ideas in Styron's fiction. Yet, without studying the complex aspects of slavery our view will be confined to the "inevitably tragic history of an Old South doomed by the burden of slavery" (Ranson 107). The slavery issue cannot be ignored, but it must be placed within the context of what I recognise as the Southern ethos which is embedded in Southern culture. The definition of culture has always been problematic but essential too. By approaching the question from the angle of the social aspect, I will quote a definition which is basically acceptable: that of A. L. Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn's. The two scholars collected 164 definitions of culture and they concluded the following: Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, on the other as conditioning elements of further action. (181) As Richard E. Sykes notes the explicit and implicit patterns are often referred to as overt and covert patterns in other works on culture. In his essay "American Studies and the Concept of Culture: A Theory and Method," he traces the history of the various definitions of culture 172