Flyover Fictions: Polarization in U.S.-American Culture, Media, and Politics

Flyover Fictions critically engages the history and contemporary use of the “flyover country” trope in American culture and repurposes the concept as an abstract tool for cultural studies. The term “flyover” arose in the 1970s with variations—“flyover country,” “flyover states”—mainly used as synonyms for the American Midwest in intranational banter regarding cultural differences from the dominant urban centers of New York City and Los Angeles. In recent years, the trope has shifted away fr...