| State of Minds: Texas Culture and Its Discontents Contributor(s): Graham, Don (Author) |
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ISBN: 029272361X ISBN-13: 9780292723610 Publisher: University of Texas Press OUR PRICE: $26.96 Product Type: Hardcover Published: February 2011 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - General |
| Dewey: 810.932 |
| LCCN: 2010026705 |
| Series: Charles N. Prothro Texana |
| Physical Information: 0.85" H x 5.88" W x 8.79" (0.86 lbs) 200 pages |
| Themes: - Geographic Orientation - Texas - Cultural Region - Mid-South - Cultural Region - South |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: John Steinbeck once famously wrote that "Texas is a state of mind." For those who know it well, however, the Lone Star State is more than one mind-set, more than a collection of clichés, more than a static stereotype. There are minds in Texas, Don Graham asserts, and some of the most important are the writers and filmmakers whose words and images have helped define the state to the nation, the world, and the people of Texas themselves. For many years, Graham has been critiquing Texas writers and films in the pages of Texas Monthly and other publications. In State of Minds, he brings together and updates essays he published between 1999 and 2009 to paint a unique, critical picture of Texas culture. In a strong personal voice--wry, humorous, and ironic--Graham offers his take on Texas literary giants ranging from J. Frank Dobie to Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy and on films such as The Alamo, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain. He locates the works he discusses in relation to time and place, showing how they sprang (or not) from the soil of Texas and thereby helped to define Texas culture for generations of readers and viewers--including his own younger self growing up on a farm in Collin County. Never shying from controversy and never dull, Graham's essays in State of Minds demolish the notion that "Texas culture" is an oxymoron. |
Contributor Bio(s): Graham, Don: - DON GRAHAM is J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches the famous course “Life and Literature of the Southwest.” Graham has written extensively on Southwestern American literature, film, and history. His books include Cowboys and Cadillacs: How Hollywood Looks at Texas, No Name on the Bullet: A Biography of Audie Murphy, Kings of Texas: The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire, and State Fare: An Irreverent Guide to Texas Movies. Graham is also a past president of the Texas Institute of Letters and a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly. |