The International Conference on Elvis Presley, convened at the University of Mississippi in August, transformed a rock and roll icon into a scholarly phenomenon. Educators, artists, and Elvis aficionados from across the world—plus over one hundred internationally based reporters—collected on Oxford, Mississippi, soil to analyze and celebrate Elvis’ impact on the world stage.From this conference, which became front page New York Times Magazine news, springs this book, the best and brightest essays and artwork swirling around the cultural, social, political, and iconographic figure of Elvis Presley. Discussed within are such topics as Elvis as Southerner, Elvis as sign system, Elvis’ multicultural audiences, Elvis and rockabilly, Elvis as redneck, the Elvis oeuvre, and Elvis’ religious roots. Taken together, In Search of Elvis represents a daring and groundbreaking academic analysis. Richly illustrated with original Elvis-inspired artwork, this book captures the subterranean essence of one of the most phenomenal artists to have ever lived.
In a case of life imitates art, an entire field of Elvis studies has sprung up since the idea of such a discipline was first put forward in Don Delillo’s 1985 novel White Noise. While much of the literature in this area is dry regurgitation of contemporary critical theories applied dogmatically to Elvis’s career, life, and influence, In Search of Elvis takes a more personal approach. Though it is every bit as intellectually rigorous as more purely academic works, it is also full of readable and original essays that focus on their authors’ relation to the Elvis phenomenon. Will Campbell talks about his “redneck” background and how Elvis came to be the paradigm of that culture; Howard Finster, a folk artist whose work often features Elvis, writes a sermon on “Alvis,” his religionized version of the King; and Ernst Jorgenson tells what it was like to be a Danish Elvis fan in the early ’60s. Other essays focus on race, sexuality, and other such trendy topics without becoming simple exercises in the application of fashionable theories.
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