Research Catalog

Title

Fictional blues : narrative self-invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White / Kimberly R. Mack.

Author

Mack, Kimberly

Publication

• Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 260 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.

Summary

"The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity, and the violent stereotypes evoked by legendary blues "bad men" like Stagger Lee undergird the persistent racial myths surrounding "authentic" blues expression. Fictional Blues unpacks the figure of the American blues performer, moving from early singers such as Ma Rainey and Big Mama Thornton to contemporary musicians such as Amy Winehouse, Rhiannon Giddens, and Jack White to reveal that blues makers have long used their songs, performances, interviews, and writings to invent personas that resist racial, social, economic, and gendered oppression. Using examples of fictional and real-life blues artists culled from popular music and literary works from writers such as Walter Mosley, Alice Walker, and Sherman Alexie, Kimberly Mack demonstrates that the stories blues musicians construct about their lives (however factually slippery) are inextricably linked to the "primary story" of the narrative blues tradition, in which autobiography fuels musicians' reclamation of power and agency"--

Series Statement

African American intellectual history

Uniform Title

African American intellectual history.

Subject

• Blues (Music) > History and criticism
• Blues musicians > United States
• African Americans > Folklore
• Music and folklore
• Blues (Music)
• Blues musicians
• United States

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- The narrative blues tradition : Tall tales, myths, and Black American folklore -- Shug, Big Mama, and Amy : Autobiographical fictions and addictions -- "I was astounded at what I heard" : Robert Johnson's autobiographical and biographical afterlives -- From John Anthony Gillis to Jack White : A study in blues self-invention -- The blues apprenticeship : Racialized conventions of the acolyte -- Afterword.

Call Number

Sc E 21-1055

ISBN

• 9781625345493
• 1625345496

LCCN

2020019281

OCLC

1154072808

Author

Mack, Kimberly, author.

Title

Fictional blues : narrative self-invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White / Kimberly R. Mack.

Publisher

Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

African American intellectual history

African American intellectual history.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Subject

Black author.

Research Call Number

Sc E 21-1055