Quentin Compson spends the entirety of Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! “telling about the South.” Starting with the Civil War and Reconstruction, this course quickly progresses to competing definitions of the “New South.” It marches through the twentieth century, peopled with Talmadges and Wallaces, Parkses and Kings. It reaches into modernity as the former Confederacy recasts itself as the “Sun Belt,” and it explores the ways in which money and progress often clash with monuments and politics. The conundrum of the South never disappoints.

Roger Smith is the founding director of The Learning Center of SCI. He taught American literature in the high school classroom before becoming director of education at the Georgia Historical Society. He joined the staff of Senior Citizens, Inc. in 2006.

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