Dolly Parton ’s life is a true rag - to - riches story : raise in poverty in rural Tennessee , she outwit the odds and rise to international stardom as acountry player , actress , manufacturer , andphilanthropist . Now , The New York Timesreportsthat the Southern star ’s down - dwelling roots are the focus of an honors history course offered at the University of Tennessee ’s master campus in Knoxville .
Called “ Dolly ’s America , ” the seminar expend Parton ’s personal journeying as a lens through which to examine modern Appalachian civilisation . The singer grow up in Sevier County , about 30 miles outdoors of Knoxville , and the socio-economic class look at how a " ' hillbilly ' female child from Appalachia arise up to become an international one - word champion , ” according to the course verbal description on the university ’s website .
Materials include Dolly Parton ’s 1994 autobiography , Dolly : My animation and Other Unfinished Business , and books about Appalachia ; movies , television shows , and historical videos ; and scholarly articles . place from lighthearted to somber , they provide a framework for students to examine historic themes like youngster labor , regional poverty , and the Union - state citizens committee formed by President Kennedy that ’s acknowledge today as the President ’s Appalachian Regional Commission .
“ Dolly ’s America ” also examine to dispel mystifying - sit stereotypes about rural America : ” Reading about how hillbillies and feuds began as made - up characters and tropes in novel and cartoons to the boost of hillbilly medicine to Christian entertainment and the thread of tourism , student see the summons by which fiction often becomes fact , and how inheritance is a portmanteau of the real and the imagine , ” the path verbal description says .
“ Dolly ’s America ” was taught for the first time last yr , and will be instruct again in Fall 2017 . That tell , entree is likely to be competitive , as the course recently received a Twitter endorsement by Parton herself :
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
