Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Blackface Minstrelsy'

Blackface minstrelsy just ain’t what it used to be. This statement should not be understood as a call for the return of the minstrel show. Quite literally, minstrelsy and its central feature blackface manifest themselves in divergent ways from their nineteenth and twentieth century manifestations, convey a range of meanings, and serve a number of social and artistic functions in the twenty-first century. Through the analysis of a variety of texts and practices from across cultural fields including music, television, film, journalism, social media, and academic discourses of minstrelsy this thesis identifies how blackface and minstrelsy are manifested, their function in critical, artistic, and social contexts, and the effects of their appearance in popular culture. To achieve this, discussion utilises the analytical methodologies of semiotics and discourse analysis to identify the themes and tropes and consistencies and inconsistencies that form the image and concept of blackface minstrelsy in the twenty-first century. Initial conclusions point to a number of contrasting functions and effects: the notion of equivalency with cultural and industrial practices; use as a discursive and iconographic signifier of racism, exploitation, and marginalisation in cultural criticism; application in comedic, dramatic, and artistic contexts as a tool of satire, parody, and irony; and public displays of blackface, seemingly ignorant of its problematic signification. In conclusion, the thesis locates its findings within wider discourses of race, appropriation, and marginalisation in American society. Moreover, this is positioned in the light of recent tensions between African American communities and the police, the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and the proposal of post-racialism following the election of Barack Obama as United States President in 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--Cleveland State University, 2008.<br>Abstract. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 7, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-52). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center. Also available in print.

This work traces the relationship of Jews to African-Americans in the process of Jews attaining whiteness in the 20th century. Specific attention is paid to blackface performance in The Jazz Singer and the process of identification with suffering. Theoretically this work brings together psychoanalytic theories of projection, repression and masochism with afro-pessimist notions of the libidinal economy of white supremacy. Ultimately, I argue that in its enjoyment and its masochism, The Jazz Singer empathizes with blackness both as a way to assimilate into white America and express doubt at this very act.

Darkology: The Hidden History of Amateur Blackface Minstrelsy and the Making of Modern America, 1860-1970 develops a critical bibliography and uses material culture to uncover the pervasive world of amateur blackface minstrelsy that took hold in most cities in the United States North and West between 1860 and 1970. Previously lost to history, amateur minstrelsy was integral to domestic and international imperialism. This dissertation aims to understand the cultural origins and consequences of amateur blackface minstrelsy, to map its political geography, and recapture the significance of its print culture. Despite an abundant body of evidence, the print culture of amateur blackface had remained unstudied. Darkology discloses the relationship between racially exclusive fraternal orders and the U.S. Government, and the immense body of blackface print that they created for public use. Darkology reveals the lost history of amateur blackface by providing the first bibliographic study of amateur blackface print, extends the chronology of theatrical blackface minstrelsy by seventy years through 1970, expands the geography of blackface in amateur form to the West, and reveals legal campaigns waged by the NAACP to ban blackface during the Civil Rights Movement.<br>History

Stephen Foster is acknowledged as America’s first composer of popular music. His legacy can be seen in the number of songs that are embedded in our cultural heritage – “Oh! Susanna,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” and “My Old Kentucky Home,” are but a very few of his most popular works. Stephen Foster’s songs have been incorporated into every facet of American culture including both popular and classical musical culture, television, and film. However, his legacy is complicated as it is tainted by connections to blackface minstrelsy in some works. This document seeks to trace the threads of racial sensitivity and cultural appropriation in works arranged for choral ensembles based on Foster’s songs. The arrangements chosen for this document provide a glimpse into three distinct periods of American history – pre-Civil Rights, the Civil Rights Era, and post-Civil Rights. Using a process of comparative analysis of the music and text of the originals to that of the arrangements, this document traces expected and unexpected changes in music and text associated with each period. Perhaps through the continued study of one of America’s first purveyors of popular culture, we can begin to understand our national legacy of racism more clearly and find a path towards reconciliation.

Abstract:Social Media has become a powerful tool in several aspects. It can mobilize movements, rallying for social or political causes, and it can bring people together to share experiences or interest on a global platform. Social media platforms have facilitated more dynamic ways of presenting and performing identity positions such as race, gender, class and sexuality. Though many scholars have agreed that the internet and social media offer interesting new aspects in relation to identity exploration and self-expression, the performance of identity online can also contribute to problematic discourses that reinforce old social stereotypes online affecting what happens offline.This thesis explores racial performance on social media by examining the phenomenon of ‘Digital Blackface’, which is a virtual continuation of a historical phenomenon that operates, in particular, through Internet memes. The thesis studies different versions of an American meme, which represent an altered representation of a real person, known as Sweet Brown. Sweet Brown is an African American woman who after she was interviewed on television became a viral celebrity. Due to her expressive personality, her image has been remixed into several popular Internet memes.The theoretical framework consists of a theorization of racial performance and media representation theory. This theoretical lens is used in the analysis that sets out to answer the questions, how is the Sweet Brown meme used as a form of racial performance online? What is Digital Blackface and how does it operate online? And In what way can racial performance reinforce stereotypic representations? The methodological approach the thesis employs to conduct the analysis and exemplify the problematics are visual analysis, critical discourse analysis, and critical theory. Further, the implication of racial performances in Internet memes is linked to other recent cases or incidents that relate to issues of racial performance in the media. Keywords: Racial Performance, Internet memes, Minstrelsy, Digital Blackface, Internet Culture, Representation, Race, Racism.

This dissertation explores the role of sheet music in the evolving racial ideologies of mid-nineteenth-century America. My claim is that minstrelsy in the home presents parallel but distinct development of the themes and assumptions commonly associated with the blackface tradition. My primary interest is in exploring early print versions of a popular minstrel tunes to consider how adjustments in the design and content mark minstrelsy's transition from rowdy dance hall spectacle to refined home entertainment. Read against literary works and first-hand accounts of nineteenth-century home life, the cover illustrations, lyrics, and musical notation of minstrel sheet music reveal how misrepresentations of black identity were positioned at complex intersections of popular culture, national identity, public and private space, and consumerism. I offer an analysis of lyrics, melodies, and musical arrangements to show the evolution of 1840s minstrel sheet music—a progression that exposes a developing reciprocal relationship between the refined aesthetics of the parlor and the playful antics of blackface performance. Most notably, I demonstrate how the logic Eric Lott employs in exposing blackface performance as a medium driven by white male sexuality and racial desire finds a gendered parallel in the images of minstrel sheet music covers designed for white middle-class women. Ultimately, I suggest that in an era when family dynamics were changing, when class lines were being redrawn, when print material not only reflected social standards but also dictated them, Americans were relearning family roles and relationships even as they were consuming race parodies offered on the covers and in the lyrics of popular minstrel songs. In this age of class uncertainty, minstrel sheet music provided not only entertainment that was supposedly “rich in dark fun” but also offered black caricatures that assured white Americans of their own place within the shifting boundaries of domestic propriety.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>This project investigates the contextual and aesthetic frameworks for a creative work inspired by the practice and reception of racial transvestism and burlesque in the 19^th and 21^st centuries. Few Australians may be aware of the depth and reach of a particular form of racial transvestism — blackface minstrelsy — in Australia during the 19^th century. Likewise, few appear aware that “burlesque,” sometimes characterised today as “white-collar” striptease, once characterised an entire mode of 19^th-century theatrical entertainment. During the 19^th century, burlesques — parodies of mainstream operas and plays — came to be a fixture on blackface minstrel programmes. The exegesis investigates the practice of burlesque and blackface minstrelsy in the Hunter Valley, a region of colonial New South Wales, and, using available historical evidence, conjures a speculative fiction: a blackface minstrel burlesque with a provenance suggesting a regional “premiere” in 1869. This speculative fiction is framed in popular sensibilities redolent of 19^th-century humour — ludicrous and grotesque — and like some minstrel burlesques of the period, responds to a real event of some note: in this case, a public corroboree performed by Aboriginal groups to entertain a white colonial population in Maitland, NSW. Although representations of Australian Aborigines in colonial drama were strongly influence by minstrelsy (and minstrelsy could be a vehicle for mocking any ethnic minority), minstrelsy per se appears to have overlooked indigenous Australians in favour of (black) American racial targets. A latterday attempt to correct this apparent historical oversight, the speculative fiction perverts what may have been the first piece of colonial literature with an entirely indigenous cast of characters, G.W. Rusden’s <i>Moyarra: An Aboriginal Legend</i>. There is no score or libretto for this speculative fiction: its “existence” and, indeed many of its features, are inferred from a fake advertisement purportedly taken from local newspapers in 1869. But in turn, the speculative fiction based on Rusden’s text (<i>Moyarra: An Un-Original Burlesque Extravaganza</i>) itself becomes the subject for burlesque: a 21^st-century neo-burlesque with more contemporary references, <i>Moyarra: An Extravagant Undress</i>, here represented by libretto, score, and recording. In spirit and form, <i>Moyarra: An Extravagant Undress</i> is a 19^th-century burlesque treatment of the speculative fiction: the “low” vernacular libretto becomes “high” poetry; racial targets are cast aside in favour of post-humanist/technological targets; the music assumes a contemporary aspect and includes references to the modern canon of popular music; and the production acquires the trappings of a contemporary understanding of burlesque. While not entirely abandoning ludicrous and grotesque, the <i>Extravagant Undress</i> relies on a “camp” aesthetic or sensibility that, arguably, links 19^th-century burlesque with the present. A series of songs linked by somber narrative, the <i>Extravagant Undress</i> perverts its fictional 19^th-century subject. But it may also be a vehicle for mocking blackface and the contemporary practice of burlesque.

Controlling images and negative stereotypes have had damaging effects on black men and women. The entertainment industry continues to play a vital role in perpetuating these historically damaging images to people all over the world. Early representations of black men and women within entertainment were performed by white men under the guise of blackface. These representations were offensive and inaccurate portrayals of black life. Early blackface minstrel performances of black women were performed by white men in blackface who were also cross-dressing. Their performances presented black women in stereotypical roles which have become a norm. Recently, there has been a phenomenon of black men cross-dressing as black women portraying negative stereotypes. These depictions done under the guise of comedy further perpetuate controlling images of black women to the world. This research examines how current and former displays of gender minstrelsy manipulate the image of Black womanhood.

碩士<br>輔仁大學<br>音樂學系<br>102<br>Abstract Since the debut of his song Oh! Susanna in 1848, Stephen C. Foster has yet to be given a proper place in the history of music. Should we consider him a writer of folk songs or of popular music? Should we identify him as a classical composer? The 307 works of music he has left us span a wide range of genres: hymns; vocal works for trios and quartets; songs accompanied by the guitar or piano; as well as pieces for the piano and other instruments. Although it may be an exaggeration to regard him as one of the most celebrated masters in the history of Western music, Foster had—as had 19th century American blackface minstrelsy— made an undeniable impression on the musical audience of the United States. He was, moreover, the first American composer whose works transcended racial and cultural borders, bringing American folk songs to the rest of the world. On its surface, American blackface minstrelsy might seem to be a racially charged byproduct of a bygone era. Upon closer examination, however this form of entertainment, which had remained popular for over a hundred year, appears to be an authentic product of the American music tradition. Blackface minstrelsy symbolizes the blending of two different lifestyles and musical traditions, viz. those of English immigrants and those of African slaves. This essay will first expound on the life and musical career of Foster. It will then explore the intricate relation between Foster and American blackface minstrelsy, which thrived when Foster’s career reached its zenith. By understanding Foster’s life and his ties with blackface minstrelsy, we will catch a glimpse of the contours of the musical culture of the 19th century American bourgeoisie. Key words: Stephen C. Foster Blackface minstrelsy Race Bourgeoisie

This dissertation examines sound, and its embodied articulation through music and movement, as I consider pivotal ways in which race has been constructed through the history of blackface minstrelsy in the United States. I contend that the racialized sounds developed out of early blackface performance have both persisted and shifted throughout the history of American popular music, even after the disappearance of the blackface mask. I have neologized the concept of Blacksound to denote the racially coded sonic scripts that have developed out of the history of blackface performance. Blacksound refers to the histories and movements of the African American bodies, both real and imagined, on which its performance is based. The concept also suggests the scripting, manipulation, and absorption of these sonic performances by both black and non-black bodies as vehicles for imagining and self-expression, understood in relation to how ideals of citizenship vis-a-vis whiteness developed along the emerging color line throughout the long nineteenth century. Because Blacksound emerges out of the contexts of chattel slavery and minstrelsy, its commodified nature is always central to understanding how it sonically functions within the construction of identity in U.S. history. I examine how the masked receding of the sonic and corporeal tropes of blackface into Blacksound became the basis of contemporary popular sound and central to constructions of civic and racial identity in the United States. This approach is primarily developed through a comparative analysis of sheet music, imagery, and primary and secondary accounts of blackface performance rituals throughout the long nineteenth century.

“The Transgressive Stage: The Culture of Public Entertainment in Late Victorian Toronto,” argues that public entertainment was one of the most important sites for the negotiation of identities in late Victorian Toronto. From the vantage point of the twenty-first century, where theatre is strictly highbrow, it is difficult to appreciate the centrality of public entertainment to everyday life in the nineteenth century. Simply put, the Victorian imagination was populated by melodrama and minstrelsy, Shakespeare and circuses. Studying the responses to these entertainments, greatly expands our understanding of Victorian culture. The central argument of this dissertation is that public entertainment spilled over the threshold of the playhouse and circus tent to influence the wider world. In so doing, it radically altered the urban streetscape, interacted with political ideology, promoted trends in consumption, as well as exposed audiences to new intellectual currents about art and beauty. Specifically, this study examines the moral panic surrounding indecent theatrical advertisements; the use by political playwrights of tropes from public entertainment as a vehicle for political satire; the role of the stage in providing an outlet for Toronto’s racial curiosity; the centrality of commercial amusements in defining the boundaries of gender; and, finally, the importance of the theatre—particularly through the Aesthetic Movement—in attempts to control the city’s working class. When Torontonians took in a play, they were also exposing themselves to one of the most significant transnational forces of the nineteenth century. British and American shows, which made up the bulk of what was on offer in the city, brought with them British and American perspectives. The latest plays from London and New York made their way to the city within months, and sometimes weeks, of their first production. These entertainments introduced audiences to the latest thoughts, fashion, slang and trends. They also confronted playgoers with issues that might, on the surface seem foreign and irrelevant. Nevertheless, they quickly adapted to the environment north of the border. Public entertainment in Toronto came to embody a hybridized culture with a promiscuous co-mingling of high and low and of British and American influences.