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Winner, Wayland D. Hand Prize, American Folklore Society, 2018
Originating in a homicide in St. Louis in 1899, the ballad of
"Frankie and Johnny" became one of America's most familiar songs
during the first half of the twentieth century. It crossed lines of
race, class, and artistic genres, taking form in such varied
expressions as a folk song performed by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead
Belly); a ballet choreographed by Ruth Page and Bentley Stone under
New Deal sponsorship; a mural in the Missouri State Capitol by
Thomas Hart Benton; a play by John Huston; a motion picture, She
Done Him Wrong, that made Mae West a national celebrity; and an
anti-lynching poem by Sterling Brown. In this innovative book,
Stacy I. Morgan explores why African American folklore-and "Frankie
and Johnny" in particular-became prized source material for artists
of diverse political and aesthetic sensibilities. He looks at a
confluence of factors, including the Harlem Renaissance, the Great
Depression, and resurgent nationalism, that led those creators to
engage with this ubiquitous song. Morgan's research uncovers the
wide range of work that artists called upon African American
folklore to perform in the 1930s, as it alternately reinforced and
challenged norms of race, gender, and appropriate subjects for
artistic expression. He demonstrates that the folklorists and
creative artists of that generation forged a new national culture
in which African American folk songs featured centrally not only in
folk and popular culture but in the fine arts as well.
Winner, Wayland D. Hand Prize, American Folklore Society, 2018
Originating in a homicide in St. Louis in 1899, the ballad of
"Frankie and Johnny" became one of America's most familiar songs
during the first half of the twentieth century. It crossed lines of
race, class, and artistic genres, taking form in such varied
expressions as a folk song performed by Huddie Ledbetter (Lead
Belly); a ballet choreographed by Ruth Page and Bentley Stone under
New Deal sponsorship; a mural in the Missouri State Capitol by
Thomas Hart Benton; a play by John Huston; a motion picture, She
Done Him Wrong, that made Mae West a national celebrity; and an
anti-lynching poem by Sterling Brown. In this innovative book,
Stacy I. Morgan explores why African American folklore-and "Frankie
and Johnny" in particular-became prized source material for artists
of diverse political and aesthetic sensibilities. He looks at a
confluence of factors, including the Harlem Renaissance, the Great
Depression, and resurgent nationalism, that led those creators to
engage with this ubiquitous song. Morgan's research uncovers the
wide range of work that artists called upon African American
folklore to perform in the 1930s, as it alternately reinforced and
challenged norms of race, gender, and appropriate subjects for
artistic expression. He demonstrates that the folklorists and
creative artists of that generation forged a new national culture
in which African American folk songs featured centrally not only in
folk and popular culture but in the fine arts as well.
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Discovery Miles 3 510
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