For this week, we have read critical responses to The Kentucky Cycle. Donesky calls the play a “drive by shooting” (285). What does he mean? Why is this important?

Donesky refers to the play as a drive by shooting because it is one work of literature, in this case a play, that exists in a long line of many. The Kentucky Cycle is another random jab or stab at the people and culture of Appalachia, like a drive-by shooting is a random act of violence. The author of The Kentucky Cycle, Robert Schenkkan, did not spend any time in the region to truly learn the culture. He stayed about two days and decided to write a history of it that was full of historical inaccuracies. Schenkkan portrayed the people as “mean, quaint, violent, brutish, and generally low-down and sorry” (Donesky, 285). This depiction of the people is contested because how could Schenkkan experience an entire region of people and culture in two days? How could he know it well enough to give an accurate description. The answer is that he is not able to accurately portray the people that live there. Schenkkan cannot describe the culture to the rest of America because he does not truly know it. His play is considered the “literary equivalent of a drive-by shooting” because it is a random and as senseless as one (Donesky, 285). He just furthers the stereotype of the Appalachian people and has little evidence to back up the claims he presents to the rest of the world.

KCD