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Record Nr.

UNINA9910821377003321

Autore

Romeyn Esther

Titolo

Street scenes : staging the self in immigrant New York, 1880-1924 / / Esther Romeyn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Minneapolis, : University of Minnesota Press, c2008

ISBN

0-8166-6626-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (308 p.)

Disciplina

305.8009747/10903

792.097471

Soggetti

City and town life - New York (State) - New York - History

Ethnicity - New York (State) - New York - History

Immigrants - New York (State) - New York - Intellectual life

Immigrants - New York (State) - New York - Social conditions

Minorities - New York (State) - New York - Intellectual life

Minorities - New York (State) - New York - Social conditions

Performing arts - Social aspects - New York (State) - New York - History

Self - New York (State) - New York - History

New York (N.Y.) Ethnic relations

New York (N.Y.) Intellectual life

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-261) and index.

Nota di contenuto

pt. 1. The city as theater : performativity and urban space -- The epistemology of the city -- Detecting, acting, and the hierarchy of the social body -- Crossing the Bowery : female slumming and the theater of urban space -- Eros and Americanization : the rise of David Levinsky, or the etiquette of race and sex -- pt. 2. Stages of identity : performing ethnic subjects -- Juggling identities : the case of an Italian American clown -- My other/my self : impersonation and the rehearsal of otherness -- The truth of racial signs : civilizing the Jewish comic -- Blackface, Jewface, whiteface : racial impersonation revisited.

Sommario/riassunto

The turn of the twentieth century in New York City was characterized by radical transformation as the advent of consumer capitalism confronted



established social hierarchies, culture, and conceptions of selfhood. The popular stage existed in a symbiotic relationship with the city and uniquely captured the contested terms of immigrant identity of the time. Street Scenes focuses on the intersection of modern city life and stage performance. From street life and slumming to vaudeville and early cinema, to Yiddish theater and blackface comedy, Esther Romeyn discloses racial comedy, passing, and ma