A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular SongHarvard University Press, 16/03/2001 - 288 páginas All too often an incident or accident, such as the eruption in Crown Heights with its legacy of bitterness and recrimination, thrusts Black-Jewish relations into the news. A volley of discussion follows, but little in the way of progress or enlightenment results--and this is how things will remain until we radically revise the way we think about the complex interactions between African Americans and Jews. A Right to Sing the Blues offers just such a revision. Black-Jewish relations, Jeffrey Melnick argues, has mostly been a way for American Jews to talk about their ambivalent racial status, a narrative collectively constructed at critical moments, when particular conflicts demand an explanation. Remarkably flexible, this narrative can organize diffuse materials into a coherent story that has a powerful hold on our imagination. Melnick elaborates this idea through an in-depth look at Jewish songwriters, composers, and perfomers who made Black music in the first few decades of this century. He shows how Jews such as George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Al Jolson, and others were able to portray their natural affinity for producing Black music as a product of their Jewishness while simultaneously depicting Jewishness as a stable white identity. Melnick also contends that this cultural activity competed directly with Harlem Renaissance attempts to define Blackness. Moving beyond the narrow focus of advocacy group politics, this book complicates and enriches our understanding of the cultural terrain shared by African Americans and Jews. |
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... actual events. Instead, what if we begin with the idea that all the talk about the relationship of African Americans and Jews constitutes the primary materials of Black-Jewish relations. What happens when “Black-Jewish relations” is ...
... actual events. Instead, what if we begin with the idea that all the talk about the relationship of African Americans and Jews constitutes the primary materials of Black-Jewish relations. What happens when “Black-Jewish relations” is ...
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... actual” contact which have constituted traditional narratives of Black-Jewish relations (for example, in civil rights groups and labor unions) is a prevailing belief that African Americans and Jews are somehow “related” through their ...
... actual” contact which have constituted traditional narratives of Black-Jewish relations (for example, in civil rights groups and labor unions) is a prevailing belief that African Americans and Jews are somehow “related” through their ...
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... actual moments of contact. The initial ~gurative explanation of the correspondence between African American and Jewish American musical expressions suggested that since Jews and African Americans had paral- 16 E x a m C o p y lel ...
... actual moments of contact. The initial ~gurative explanation of the correspondence between African American and Jewish American musical expressions suggested that since Jews and African Americans had paral- 16 E x a m C o p y lel ...
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... actual contact which advanced the idea that it made sense to consider the two groups (or “representative” members) relationally. David Levering Lewis and others have focused on how “elite” African Americans and Jews created a sense of ...
... actual contact which advanced the idea that it made sense to consider the two groups (or “representative” members) relationally. David Levering Lewis and others have focused on how “elite” African Americans and Jews created a sense of ...
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... actual demographics (particularly of northern urban centers) which led to the sharing and appropriation of cultural materials. Not surprisingly, images of fusion were central to this universe of talk about music—and they tell a ...
... actual demographics (particularly of northern urban centers) which led to the sharing and appropriation of cultural materials. Not surprisingly, images of fusion were central to this universe of talk about music—and they tell a ...
Índice
The Racialness of Jewish Men | |
From Blackface to White Negro | |
African American Music and the Nation | |
Making Jews Sacred in African American Music | |
Epilogue | |
Notes | |
Index | |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song Jeffrey Melnick Pré-visualização indisponível - 2001 |
A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song Jeffrey Melnick Pré-visualização indisponível - 1999 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
able According activity actual African American music Ameri American popular American Popular Music Americans and Jews appeared argues artistic attention become begin Black Black-Jewish relations blackface Blues Book called Cantor century Chicago City claim clear close colored comes composer course critic cultural described developed discussions early ethnic example explain expression fact father folk forms George Gershwin groups helped idea identity important instance interesting Irving Berlin jazz Jazz Singer Jewish Jews and African Johnson Jolson least major marked materials metaphor Mezzrow Michael move musicians Negro original Oxford particularly performers play popular music Porgy and Bess position productions published Quoted race racial ragtime reference relationship rhetoric seems sexual similar sing social song sounds spiritual stage story success suggested Tin Pan Alley tion United writing written York
Referências a este livro
The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz Jeffrey Magee Pré-visualização limitada - 2005 |