Fictional Blues

Regular price €39.99
A01=Kimberly Mack
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Alice Walker
Amy Winehouse
Author_Kimberly Mack
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Bessie Smith
Big Mama Thornton
blues music
blues performance
blues persona
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=AVC
Category=AVGC6
Category=AVGK
Category=AVLA
Category=AVLP
Category=DS
Category=DSB
Category=DSRC
Category=HPX
Category=JBCC1
Category=JFCA
Category=QDX
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Delta blues
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Jack White
Language_English
Ma Rainey
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Rhiannon Giddens
Sherman Alexie
softlaunch
Walter Mosley

Product details

  • ISBN 9781625345509
  • Weight: 424g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
  • Publication Date: 30 Dec 2020
  • Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Paperback
  • Language: English
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days

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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.

Kimberly Mack is assistant professor of African American literature at the University of Toledo.