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TELL, Dave

Special 2012, 42:3, pages 214-232

The Meanings of Kansas:  Rhetoric, Regions, and Counter Regions

Abstract:  This essay uses the Kansas reception of Truman Capote’s 1966 In Cold Blood to reflect on processes of regionalism and resistance. Noting that Capote and In Cold Blood were articulated quite differently in different portions of the state of Kansas, I explain how Kansans used a text that was imposed on them to craft for themselves regional identities of their own making. I call these ‘‘counter regions,’’ a term I coin to emphasize that region making is an important, if often overlooked, ingredient in practices of cultural resistance.