Why English Professors Love Country Music By Gina Barreca
Why English Professors Love Country Music An Analysis Most English students know that catchy titles may be a sure way to get the reader’s attention, and the professor’s nod as well. Similarly, most country songs begin with a striking, if not shocking, title and immediately capture the listener’s attention – and not always the high-brow listener. Just as her beloved country tunes, well-known author, Gina Barreca, in her humorous essay, “Why English Professors Love Country Music,” presents not only that “catchy title,” but numerous examples of country music songs as evidence to support her position that as “grown-up music,” country music is accessible to both the erudite academics as well as the blue-collar-Joes. Barreca’s purpose is to resolve the age-old idea that the lofty, ideological professor might also find relevance in the seemingly simple lyrics of country songs. She adopts a vibrant and funny tone in order to appeal to the emotions and experiences of her more mature adult audience with phrases such as the quote from Rene . Through the use of both academic and colloquial diction, Barreca convinces readers that country music is accessible …show more content…
She is an English professor but yet uses language such as “I got to thinkin’” and “You Ain’t much fun since I quit drinkin’” Normally, you would expect these types of phrases to send someone of her background into a seizure but these examples show readers the universal appeal of country music. However, she also includes in her examples lofty rhetorical strategies such as the antimetabole in paragraph 10 “A missing person that nobody misses at all” and allusions to Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner in paragraph 13 that her more academic colleagues would recognize as well. By including examples of diction that is both informal and formal she illustrates the claim that stated in paragraph that “country music starts where pop
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