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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... major part in getting me through. I have bene~ted from the expert assistance of librarians at Harvard's Theatre Collection, as well as throughout the Harvard library system. This book ~rst saw light as a dissertation in the American ...
... major part in getting me through. I have bene~ted from the expert assistance of librarians at Harvard's Theatre Collection, as well as throughout the Harvard library system. This book ~rst saw light as a dissertation in the American ...
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... Americans and Jews because it emphasizes two major truths about what 1 E x a m C o p y we have. Introduction: The Languages of Black-Jewish Relations. Copyright © 1999 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Introduction.
... Americans and Jews because it emphasizes two major truths about what 1 E x a m C o p y we have. Introduction: The Languages of Black-Jewish Relations. Copyright © 1999 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Introduction.
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... major site for just the kind of discussion which Jones and Shepp took control of in the Village Vanguard. In this book I trace in detail how Jews and African Americans have organized the evidence of their oppression to make public ...
... major site for just the kind of discussion which Jones and Shepp took control of in the Village Vanguard. In this book I trace in detail how Jews and African Americans have organized the evidence of their oppression to make public ...
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... major issues of Black- Jewish relations from two supposedly different sides (because they have played such major roles in African American civic organizations), the central assumption of this book is that “Black-Jewish relations” needs ...
... major issues of Black- Jewish relations from two supposedly different sides (because they have played such major roles in African American civic organizations), the central assumption of this book is that “Black-Jewish relations” needs ...
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... major roots in the Leo Frank case of 1913–1915. Frank, a Brooklyn Jew living in Atlanta, was tried and convicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, a young white woman who worked in the National Pencil Company factory he managed. The case ...
... major roots in the Leo Frank case of 1913–1915. Frank, a Brooklyn Jew living in Atlanta, was tried and convicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, a young white woman who worked in the National Pencil Company factory he managed. The case ...
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 |