The Blues Aesthetic and the Making of American Identity in the Literature of the SouthP. Lang, 2003 - 164 pagina's The blues aesthetic as formulated by Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray holds that the African-American vernacular tradition, with blues music at its core, has had an unparalleled impact on the whole of American culture and art. Examining the manner in which the aesthetics related to blues music are manifested in the literature of George Washington Harris, Charles Chesnutt, Zora Neale Hurston, and Lewis Nordan reveals that African-American experience is diffused throughout Southern literature, from Old Southwest humor to contemporary fiction. The blues aesthetic as a window into the works of these four authors allows the reader to recognize the African-American and Southern elements that contribute to the making of American identity as expressed in our art. |
Inhoudsopgave
from Behind Suts TragicComic Mask | 9 |
The Dialectic of Cultural Transformation | 29 |
From the Jook to the Juke Box | 63 |
Copyright | |
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African African-American African-American community African-American vernacular Albert Murray Alice Alice Walker American art American culture American identity American music artistic Arvay Arvay's Bessie Smith blackness and whiteness Blue John blues aesthetic blues music blues musicians blues songs blues strategies Bobo Bobo's Brodhead character Chesnutt claims color line Color Struck Conjure Woman consciousness created Dad's Dead dance darky disjuncture Eatonville Ellison Emma Emmett Emmett Till Ethel Waters example experience Eyes Were Watching fact father fiction George Washington Harris Harris Harris's Hemenway imagination improvises Janie Janie's jazz jooks Julius Julius's laughing Lewis Nordan literary Mars Jeems Mars Jeems's mask minstrel minstrelsy Mississippi Murray noo nigger Nordan novel pain play racial reader Rourke says Seraph signifying singing slave Solon South Southern literature speak Sugar suggests Sundquist Sut Lovingood Sut's Suwanee Swamp tale Tea Cake tells Till's tragic/comic transformation uniquely American vernacular imperative Wolf Whistle writes Zora Neale Hurston