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Book Cover
E-book
Author Mack, Kimberly, author.

Title Fictional blues : narrative self-invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White / Kimberly R. Mack
Published Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 260 pages) : illustrations
Series African American intellectual history
African American intellectual history.
Contents 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
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"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Blues (Music) -- History and criticism
Blues musicians -- United States
African Americans -- Folklore
Music and folklore.
African Americans -- Folklore.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / General
African Americans
Blues (Music)
Blues musicians
Music and folklore
United States
Genre/Form Electronic books
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Folklore
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781613767955
1613767951