This study proposes an approach to Southern culture as a perpetually re–written/re–read text that survives by successive re–contextualizations of its fundamental patterns. Relying on fictional and non–fictional representations, the paper follows the trajectory of the plantation as an epitome of the South from the status of archetypal model to that of stereotype, showing how the latter ironically acquires the power of the former, and becomes the very source of misconceptions or simplifying perceptions. Ultimately, as we are going to show, this shift is part of the continuous process of negotiation supported by the basic human need to assimilate otherness and define ourselves in relation with it. In order to illustrate this negotiation, the paper examines a number of contemporary Southern writers, who, by re–reading/re–writing the heritage of their native region, and projecting it into new forms of expression meant to accommodate post–modern experiences, attempt to reconcile a double crisis: of their own identity against the background of their native region, and of their native region against the background of contemporary history.