Darkening Mirrors

Batiste Stephanie Leigh Batiste

Description

In Darkening Mirrors, Stephanie Leigh Batiste examines how African Americans participated in U.S. cultural imperialism in Depression-era stage and screen performances. A population treated as second-class citizens at home imagined themselves as empowered, modern U.S. citizens and transnational actors in plays, operas, ballets, and films. Many of these productions, such as the 1938 hits Haiti and The "Swing" Mikado recruited large casts of unknown performers, involving the black community not only as spectators but also as participants. Performances of exoticism, orientalism, and primitivism are inevitably linked to issues of embodiment, including how bodies signify blackness as a cultural, racial, and global category. Whether enacting U.S. imperialism in westerns, dramas, dances, songs, jokes, or comedy sketches, African Americans maintained a national identity that registered a diasporic empowerment and resistance on the global stage. Boldly addressing the contradictions in these performances, Batiste challenges the simplistic notion that the oppressed cannot identify with oppressive modes of power and enact themselves as empowered subjects. Darkening Mirrors adds nuance and depth to the history of African American subject formation and stage and screen performance.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• África
• Americas
• États-Unis
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 06 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822393757
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

DARKENING MIRRORS

DARKENING MIRRORS

ImpeRIaL RepResentatIon In DepRessIon-eRa afRIcan ameRIcan peRfoRmance

Stephanie Leigh Batiste

Duke unIveRsIty pRess DurHam & London2011

© 2011 Duke unIveRsIty pRess All righTS rESErVE. riTE i ThE UiTE ŚTàTES OF AMEriCà O àCi-FrEE PàPEr ♾ dESigE bY AMY ûTh BûChàà YPESET i ArO rO bY SEg ïFOrMàTiO ŚYSTEMS, ïC. ibràrY OF ÇOgrESS ÇàTàlOgig-i-ûbliCàTiO dàTà àPPEàr O ThE làST PriTE PàgE OF ThiS bOOK.

For Ernest & Louque

1 2 3 4 5 6

contents

LIst of fIGuRes ix pRoLoGue xi acknowLeDGments xix

IntRoDuctIon 1

HaRLem RIDes tHe RanGe 27 “ ” ÉxPàSiO, OEriTY, à NEgrO ŚûCCESS epauLets anD Leaf skIRts, waRRIoRs anD suveRsIves 70 ÉxOTiCiSM i ThE ErFOrMàCE OF ThE àiTià EVOlûTiO pRIsms of ImpeRIaL Gaze 115 ŚWigig ThE NEgrOMikado Lens/oDy 165 AThrOPOlOgY’S EThOOlOgiES à ŚPàCES OF EECTiO i dûhàM’S diàSPOrà etHnoGRapHIc RefRactIon 201 ÉxOTiCiSM à diàSPOriC ŚiSTErhOO ihe Devil’s DaugHter

no stoRm In tHe weatHeR 228 dOMESTiC BliSS à AFriCà AMEriCà ErFOrMàCE epILoGue  256

notes 261 ILIoGRapHy 299 InDeX 317

fIGuRes

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