The University of Tennessee in Knoxville will soon be offering students and opportunity to partake in semester-long class dubbed “Dolly’s America: From Sevierville to the World” covering Dolly Parton’s stunning transformation from a girl growing up in East Tennessee to an internationally-known country music icon. The unique course will be available to honors history students.
“History honors students look at how a ‘hillbilly’ girl from Appalachia grew up to become an international one-word sensation. The course pulls students in to study someone they thought they already knew and familiarizes them with analyzing popular culture as a historical source. Reading about how hillbillies and feuds began as made-up characters and tropes in novels and cartoons to the rise of hillbilly music to Christian entertainment and the thread of tourism, students see the processes by which fiction often becomes fact, and how heritage is a blend of the real and the imagined,” the institution of higher education shared.
Though the full syllabus has not been made public, as a part of the coursework, students will be required to read Parton’s book, Dolly: My Life, along with other material covering Appalachian culture and history.
“From the girl voted in high school ‘Least Likely to Succeed,’ this sure is a blessing,” Parton playfully quipped via Twitter about the upcoming course.
What a neat honor for Dolly! We hope she gives the college students a thrill by dropping in and checking on their progress. Though the vast majority of her fans won’t be able to enroll in this amazing offering, we can still appreciate tidbits of Dolly’s wisdom and wit through her quotes.
“If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.”
― Dolly Parton
“They think I’m simpleminded because I seem to be happy. Why shouldn’t I be happy? I have everything I ever wanted and more. Maybe I am simpleminded. Maybe that’s the key: simple.”
― Dolly Parton, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”
― Dolly Parton
“I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain. I re-read passages from my favorite books. I hold the little treasures that somebody special gave me. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world.”
― Dolly Parton, Dream More
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”
― Dolly Parton
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