Title Black resonance : iconic women singers and African American literature / Emily J. Lordi

Published New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2013]

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 286 pages) : illustrations Contents Introduction: Black resonance -- Vivid lyricism: Richard Wright and Bessie Smith's blues -- The timbre of sincerity: Mahalia Jackson's gospel sound and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man -- Understatement: James Baldwin, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday -- Haunting: Gayl Jones's Corregidora and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" -- Signature voices: Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin, and the Black Arts movement -- Epilogue: "At Last": Etta James, poetry, hip hop Summary "Ever since Bessie Smith's powerful voice conspired with the "race records" industry to make her a star in the 1920s, African American writers have memorialized the sounds and theorized the politics of black women's singing. In Black Resonance, Emily J. Lordi analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Focusing on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s, Black Resonance reveals a musical-literary tradition in which singers and writers, faced with similar challenges and harboring similar aims, developed comparable expressive techniques. Drawing together such seemingly disparate works as Bessie Smith's blues and Richard Wright's neglected film of Native Son, Mahalia Jackson's gospel music and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, each chapter pairs one writer with one singer to crystallize the artistic practice they share: lyricism, sincerity, understatement, haunting, and the creation of a signature voice."--Publisher website Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject American fiction -- African American authors -- History and criticism African American women singers -- In literature African American women in literature. Music in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General. MUSIC -- General. African American women in literature American fiction -- African American authors Music in literature Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book Author American Literatures Initiative. ISBN 9781461951964 1461951968 1306118190 9781306118194 9780813562513 0813562511 0813562503 9780813562506 081356249X 9780813562490

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