| Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture Contributor(s): Mahar, William J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252066960 ISBN-13: 9780252066962 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $33.66 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 1998 Annotation: Blackface conventions both criticized the changes occurring in antebellum American life and helped shape images of race, gender, and class. Through the songs, dances, jokes, parodies, spoofs, and skits of blackface, white performers could satirize majority values without directly attacking them. Burnt cork served as a masking device for these entertainers, shielding them from any direct personal identification with the material they were performing. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask reassesses relationships between blackface comedy and other genres and traditions of Western theater; between the music of minstrel shows and its European sources; between blackface performance and socially constructed identities; and between "popular" and "elite" culture. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Performing Arts | Television - History & Criticism - Performing Arts | Theater - Stagecraft & Scenography - Social Science | Discrimination & Race Relations |
| Dewey: 791.120 |
| LCCN: 97-3351 |
| Series: Music in American Life |
| Physical Information: 1.01" H x 6" W x 8.91" (1.37 lbs) 472 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The songs, dances, jokes, parodies, spoofs, and skits of blackface groups such as the Virginia Minstrels and Buckley's Serenaders became wildly popular in antebellum America. Drawing on an unprecedented archival study of playbills, newspapers, sketches, monologues, and music, William J. Mahar explores the racist practices of minstrel entertainers and considers their performances as troubled representations of ethnicity, class, gender, and culture in the nineteenth century. Mahar investigates the relationships between blackface comedy and other Western genres and traditions; between the music of minstrel shows and its European sources; and between "popular" and "elite" constructions of culture. Locating minstrel performances within their complex sites of production, Mahar reassesses the historiography of the field. |