Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

An innovative look at the dynamic role of sound in the culture of the African Diaspora as found in poetry, film, travel narratives, and popular music.

Black Soundscapes White Stages explores the role of sound in understanding the African Diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic, from the City of Light to the islands of the French Antilles. From the writings of European travelers in the seventeenth century to short-wave radio transmissions in the early twentieth century, Edwin C. Hill Jr. uses music, folk song, film, and poetry to listen for the tragic cri nègre.

Building a conceptualization of black Atlantic sound inspired by Frantz Fanon's pioneering work on colonial speech and desire, Hill contends that sound constitutes a terrain of contestation, both violent and pleasurable, where colonial and anti-colonial ideas about race and gender are critically imagined, inscribed, explored, and resisted. In the process, this book explores the dreams and realizations of black diasporic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, and it poses questions about their legacies for us today.

In the process, thee dreams and realities of Black Atlantic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, such as the poetry of Léon-Gontran Damas—a founder of the Négritude movement—and Josephine Baker’s performance in the 1935 film Princesse Tam Tam. As the first in Johns Hopkins’s new series on the African Diaspora, this book offers new insight into the legacies of these exceptional artists and their global influence.

1115450502
Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

An innovative look at the dynamic role of sound in the culture of the African Diaspora as found in poetry, film, travel narratives, and popular music.

Black Soundscapes White Stages explores the role of sound in understanding the African Diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic, from the City of Light to the islands of the French Antilles. From the writings of European travelers in the seventeenth century to short-wave radio transmissions in the early twentieth century, Edwin C. Hill Jr. uses music, folk song, film, and poetry to listen for the tragic cri nègre.

Building a conceptualization of black Atlantic sound inspired by Frantz Fanon's pioneering work on colonial speech and desire, Hill contends that sound constitutes a terrain of contestation, both violent and pleasurable, where colonial and anti-colonial ideas about race and gender are critically imagined, inscribed, explored, and resisted. In the process, this book explores the dreams and realizations of black diasporic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, and it poses questions about their legacies for us today.

In the process, thee dreams and realities of Black Atlantic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, such as the poetry of Léon-Gontran Damas—a founder of the Négritude movement—and Josephine Baker’s performance in the 1935 film Princesse Tam Tam. As the first in Johns Hopkins’s new series on the African Diaspora, this book offers new insight into the legacies of these exceptional artists and their global influence.

33.99 In Stock
Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

by Edwin C. Hill Jr.
Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

Black Soundscapes White Stages: The Meaning of Francophone Sound in the Black Atlantic

by Edwin C. Hill Jr.

eBook

$33.99  $45.00 Save 24% Current price is $33.99, Original price is $45. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

An innovative look at the dynamic role of sound in the culture of the African Diaspora as found in poetry, film, travel narratives, and popular music.

Black Soundscapes White Stages explores the role of sound in understanding the African Diaspora on both sides of the Atlantic, from the City of Light to the islands of the French Antilles. From the writings of European travelers in the seventeenth century to short-wave radio transmissions in the early twentieth century, Edwin C. Hill Jr. uses music, folk song, film, and poetry to listen for the tragic cri nègre.

Building a conceptualization of black Atlantic sound inspired by Frantz Fanon's pioneering work on colonial speech and desire, Hill contends that sound constitutes a terrain of contestation, both violent and pleasurable, where colonial and anti-colonial ideas about race and gender are critically imagined, inscribed, explored, and resisted. In the process, this book explores the dreams and realizations of black diasporic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, and it poses questions about their legacies for us today.

In the process, thee dreams and realities of Black Atlantic mobility and separation as represented by some of its most powerful soundtexts and cultural practitioners, such as the poetry of Léon-Gontran Damas—a founder of the Négritude movement—and Josephine Baker’s performance in the 1935 film Princesse Tam Tam. As the first in Johns Hopkins’s new series on the African Diaspora, this book offers new insight into the legacies of these exceptional artists and their global influence.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781421410609
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 10/01/2013
Series: The Callaloo African Diaspora Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 192
File size: 3 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Edwin C. Hill Jr. is an assistant professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Le Tumulte Noir (Part 1): French Imperial Soundscapes and the New World
1. "Adieu Madras, Adieu Foulard": The Doudou's Colonial Complaint
2. "To Begin the Biguine": Re-membering Antillean Musical Time
3. La Baker: Princesse Tam Tam and the Doudou's Signature Dilemma
4. Negritude Drum Circles: The Tam-Tam and the Beat
5. Le Poste Colonial: Short-Wave Colonial Radio and Negritude's Poetic Technologies
Conclusion
Notes from the Sound Field
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Hill breaks new ground in the field of Francophone studies with his nuanced intersection of film studies, musicology, and literary criticism. His analyses of the musical form the biguine and the poetry of Léon-Gontran Damas, probably the least studied of the major Negritude poets, are especially important. An engaging, enlightening read.
—Jennifer Margaret Wilks, University of Texas at Austin

Jennifer Margaret Wilks

Hill breaks new ground in the field of Francophone studies with his nuanced intersection of film studies, musicology, and literary criticism. His analyses of the musical form the biguine and the poetry of Léon-Gontran Damas, probably the least studied of the major Negritude poets, are especially important. An engaging, enlightening read.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews