The Significance of "Dwelling Place" Through Representations of Memory in the Carter Family Fold

Abstract

This is an interpretive oral history project that relies upon the methods of ethnographic fieldwork (interviews, participant observation, and library/archival research) in order to understand how the Carter Family Fold (CFF) functions rhetorically as a site/sight of memory and history. Moreover, the CFF functions as a second-home or "dwelling-place" (Hyde; 2004) to those who gather each week. The CFF is a "pilgrimage destination" (Edensor: 1998) for tourists interested in Appalachian history, Southern culture, and traditional music. It also serves as a "memory place" (Dickinson, Blair, and Ott: 2011) for local residents and musicians who value the CFF as an authentic reflection of an endangered culture. This project engages community members, musicians, and tourists by focusing on the unscripted narratives and rhetorical interventions that emerge "organically" through the performances of oral history, culture, and the rhetoric of place. Unlike other analytical methods that require only library research or textual analysis, the interpretation of oral history and performance requires the engaged presence of the ethnographer so that s/he may comprehensively document and analyze how "past and present, text and context, pleasure and power ... " (Pollock, pp. 2-3: 1998) operate across multiple valences of subjective experience.