The Silent Appalachian ─ Wordless Mountaineers in Fiction, Film and Television

This book describes silent, uncommunicative, or unheard characters, in addition to those with limited or unusual voices outside normal spoken language, in fiction, film, and television shows set in Appalachia, and the reasons for their lack of communication, their behavior, and their relationships with other characters. It discusses characters with physical afflictions like autism, congenital hydrocephalus, dyslalia, mutism, or stroke, including those in works like Deliverance, Rain Man, The Waltons, On Agate Hill, and Wish You Well; those with emotional issues like ideoglossia, cryptophasia, stuttering, trauma or grief, fear, and deference, in works like Nell, Cold Mountain, The Deer Hunter, and The Silver Star; and social issues affecting their communication, such as hardship, shunning, ignorance, and poverty, including examples like The Glass Castle, Child of the Mountains, and Outer Dark. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Vicki Sigmon Collins teaches English at the University of South Carolina Aiken. She won the 2015 University Service Award and the 2016 Excellence in Teaching Award. Her work has appeared in MoonShine Review, Kakalak, and The Southern Poetry Anthology: North Carolina. She lives in Graniteville, South Carolina.