Professors Weigh In With Presley Tomes

Just when you thought Elvis had been covered from every possible angle in every manner of book, university professors are taking to print for academic examinations of the Presley phenomenon.

So along with recent books on Elvis as religion and Elvis as alien, tell-all confessionals and know-all encyclopedias, travel guides and cookbooks, this year has seen such tomes as “In Search of Elvis: Music, Race, Art, Religion” by Vernon Chadwick, late of the University of Mississippi, and “Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend” by Gilbert Rodman of the University of South Florida.

Chadwick’s book chronicles the first Conference on Elvis, which he put together in 1995, spurring controversy that helped lead to his ouster as an English professor.

After an introduction heavy with high-minded academic jargon--Elvis’ “protean and polysemic being,” the Elvis name as “semantic manna”--the book segues into verbatim presentations from Chadwick’s annual conferences. There are talks not only by professors and authors, but by artists, musicians and superfans.

Rodman’s book, with its startling cover depicting Elvis as the resurrected Jesus, is an expansion of his doctoral dissertation.

He notes that, unlike other pop icons, Elvis shows up in places he wouldn’t seem a natural fit--in the abortion debate, in an airline fare war, repeatedly in the 1992 presidential campaign.

His conclusion: “Elvis is everywhere on the contemporary cultural terrain precisely because he played such a crucial role in (re)building that terrain 40 years ago.”

Still to come is a study of Elvis’ impact on women and the changes that led to in their behavior and roles, being written by Joel Williamson of the University of North Carolina.

Two of Williamson’s books--a study of author William Faulkner and his time and a book on race relations--were Pulitzer Prize finalists.

He isn’t holding his breath on this next one.