Jason R. Young, "The Mask of Memory: White Racial Fantasy After the Civil War" (UNC Press, 2026)

About this episode

Jason R. Young discusses the myths surrounding slavery and their persistence in American culture.

In the early twentieth century, a group of white writers, artists, and performers from the cultural hub of Charleston, South Carolina, created and curated a highly sanitized view of slavery. They imagined a once and future plantation society that would reestablish them as the proper heirs of the slave past. In the process, they crafted a set of dangerously durable and virulent stereotypes about slavery. Many of the sights and sounds that Americans associate with slavery are rooted in this grandiose historical myth. The image of the Big House, sitting atop carefully manicured rolling green hills, is in large part, a fantasy, as is the idea of the plantation as an expansive family home to chivalrous planters and content slaves. Jason R. Young explores the persistence of these myths and the historical memory of slavery by focusing on the elite white mythmakers who helped shape our understanding of slavery. Examining literature, art, and performance, Young interrogates both the power and the folly of these ideas. In uncovering their origins, The Mask of Memory: White Racial Fantasy After the Civil War (UNC Press, 2026) resists these racial fantasies and challenges their stubborn…

People in this episode

Guest: Jason R. Young

Topics covered

• racial fantasy
• slavery
• historical memory
• myths
• literature
• art
• performance

Keywords

• slavery
• racial stereotypes
• plantation society
• historical myth
• Charleston
• white mythmakers
• cultural memory

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Michigan, UNC Press

Books & works: The Mask of Memory: White Racial Fantasy After the Civil War

Places: Charleston, South Carolina

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