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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... attention had been paid to various aspects of the relationship between African Americans and Jews, there had been few systematic attempts to understand a unique area of social activity which could be marked off with such a label ...
... attention had been paid to various aspects of the relationship between African Americans and Jews, there had been few systematic attempts to understand a unique area of social activity which could be marked off with such a label ...
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... attention be paid to the potentially deal-breaking areas of miscegenation and domestic labor relations. The conversations which constitute Black-Jewish relations have generally taken place between representatives of male-dominated ...
... attention be paid to the potentially deal-breaking areas of miscegenation and domestic labor relations. The conversations which constitute Black-Jewish relations have generally taken place between representatives of male-dominated ...
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... attention to any examples of bodily closeness, except for the sanctioned all-male kind, this approach has never been able to eliminate competing, less comfortable ideas about the relationship. The major thrust of this book will be to ...
... attention to any examples of bodily closeness, except for the sanctioned all-male kind, this approach has never been able to eliminate competing, less comfortable ideas about the relationship. The major thrust of this book will be to ...
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... attention away from the multiple aspects of difference (especially class difference) which separated the two groups. The metaphor of musical sameness, while shot through with ambivalence, was so often repeated and innovated upon that ...
... attention away from the multiple aspects of difference (especially class difference) which separated the two groups. The metaphor of musical sameness, while shot through with ambivalence, was so often repeated and innovated upon that ...
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... attention bestowed upon ragtime, jazz, and related musical forms had its basis in a concern with sex. But even as the sexual components of ragtime and jazz were variously being celebrated and fretted over, so too were these new genres ...
... attention bestowed upon ragtime, jazz, and related musical forms had its basis in a concern with sex. But even as the sexual components of ragtime and jazz were variously being celebrated and fretted over, so too were these new genres ...
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 |