LEADER 05848nam 22008173 450 001 9911009176703321 005 20230629223433.0 010 $a9781643363295 010 $a1643363298 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC29280032 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL29280032 035 $a(CKB)22924490900041 035 $a(OCoLC)1303569302 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)musev2_98331 035 $a(Perlego)3054671 035 $a(EXLCZ)9922924490900041 100 $a20220601d2022 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aCitizenship on Catfish Row $eRace and Nation in American Popular Culture 205 $a1st ed. 210 1$aColumbia :$cUniversity of South Carolina Press,$d2022. 210 4$dİ2022. 215 $a1 online resource (184 pages) 300 $aIncludes index. 311 08$a9781643363288 311 08$a164336328X 311 08$a9781643363271 311 08$a1643363271 327 $aIntroduction. Art and America -- The Nation in The Birth of a Nation -- Show Boat and the Strain of Race -- Porgy and Bess and the Danse Americaine -- Conclusion. A More Perfect Disunion. 330 $a"Citizenship on Catfish Row focuses on three seminal works in the history of American culture: the first full-length narrative film, D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation; the first integrated musical, Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Showboat; and the first great American opera, George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Each of these works sought to make a statement about American identity in the form of a narrative, and each included in that narrative a prominent role for Black people.Each work included jarring or discordant elements that pointed to a deeper tension between the kind of stories Americans wish to tell about themselves and the historical and social reality of race. Although all three have been widely criticized, their efforts to connect the concepts of nation and race are not only instructive about the history of the American imagination but also provide unexpected resources for contemporary reflection"--$cProvided by publisher. 330 $a"Citizenship on Catfish Row: Race and Nation in American Popular Culture retrieves three "iconic" works, each of which launched an entire genre-the serious narrative film (The Birth of a Nation), the "integrated musical" (Show Boat), and American opera (Porgy and Bess), to interpret popular entertainment in the Jim Crow era. Despite their manifold differences, these radically innovative works shared two striking features: each attempted to represent the character or spirit of America in narrative form, and each included in that story a central role for the issue of race. As popular entertainment designed to appeal to audiences, these works both endorsed and helped to shape a contemporary social consensus on race that we now find grievously flawed, and each has been sharply and appropriately criticized on that account. But when read with attention to the many ways in which they seem to question, and even contradict themselves, these works appear in a very different light, not as monuments to a dishonorable past but as expressions of a conflicted and uncertain culture burdened by history but groping its way-not always with a purposeful stride, not always with clear sight, and not always in good faith-toward a present moment confident enough of its position to criticize them. By identifying the common ambition in these foundational works, Citizenship on Catfish Row enables us to see them as moments in an evolving popular understanding of American national identity. And by focusing on points of incoherence or dissonance in their telling of the national story, it suggests the impediment to national unity represented by race. Drawing attention to the ways in which popular entertainment confronted, sometimes through evasion and sometimes with a brutal honesty, the issue of race, Harpham proposes that analysis of these works can benefit our polarized and vitriolic conversation about our nation's most important problem"--$cProvided by publisher. 606 $aRace in opera$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst01086508 606 $aRace in motion pictures$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst01086507 606 $aAfrican Americans in popular culture$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst00799734 606 $aAfrican Americans in musical theater$2fast$3(OCoLC)fst01747045 606 $aLITERARY CRITICISM / American / Asian American & Pacific Islander$2bisacsh 606 $aPERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism$2bisacsh 606 $aNoirs americains dans la culture populaire 606 $aRace au cinema 606 $aRace a? l'opera 606 $aAfrican Americans in popular culture 606 $aRace in motion pictures 606 $aRace in opera 606 $aAfrican Americans in musical theater 615 7$aRace in opera. 615 7$aRace in motion pictures. 615 7$aAfrican Americans in popular culture. 615 7$aAfrican Americans in musical theater. 615 7$aLITERARY CRITICISM / American / Asian American & Pacific Islander. 615 7$aPERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism. 615 6$aNoirs americains dans la culture populaire. 615 6$aRace au cinema. 615 6$aRace a? l'opera. 615 0$aAfrican Americans in popular culture. 615 0$aRace in motion pictures. 615 0$aRace in opera. 615 0$aAfrican Americans in musical theater. 676 $a780.89/96073 686 $aPER011020$aLIT004030$2bisacsh 700 $aHarpham$b Geoffrey Galt$0465272 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9911009176703321 996 $aCitizenship on Catfish Row$94395851 997 $aUNINA