American Allegory – Lindy Hop and the Racial Imagination - Hardcover

Hancock, Black Hawk

3.29

7 ratings by Goodreads

9780226043074: American Allegory – Lindy Hop and the Racial Imagination

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022604307X ISBN 13: 9780226043074

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2013

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"Perhaps," wrote Ralph Ellison more than seventy years ago, "the zoot suit contains profound political meaning; perhaps the symmetrical frenzy of the Lindy-hop conceals clues to great potential power." As Ellison noted then, many of our most mundane cultural forms are larger and more important than they appear, taking on great significance and an unexpected depth of meaning. What he saw in the power of the lindy hop - the dance that Life magazine once billed as "America's True National Folk Dance" - would spread from black America to make a lasting impression on white America and offer us a truly compelling means of understanding our culture. But with what hidden implications? In "American Allegory", Black Hawk Hancock offers an embedded and embodied ethnography that situates dance within a larger Chicago landscape of segregated social practices. Delving into two Chicago dance worlds, lindy hop and steppin', Hancock uses a combination of participant observation and interviews to bring to the surface the racial tension that surrounds white use of black cultural forms. Focusing on new forms of appropriation in an era of multiculturalism, Hancock underscores the institutionalization of racial disparities and offers wonderful insights into the intersection of race and culture in America.

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Review:

"In "American Allegory", Black Hawk Hancock has written a rich and intricately detailed ethnography of the distinct worlds of lindy hop and steppin'. Here, readers are offered a guide to the ways in which cultural expressions have come to occupy separate racial and spatial realms and how this apparent segregation of race, culture and identity is practiced in the United States today."--Andrew Deener, author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles

"Black Hawk Hancock provides a fascinating dance ethnography situation within the larger context of Chicago's segregated social landscape. By deploying Bourdieu's notion of 'habitus' as a recurring conceptual hook in a 'carnal sociology' reminiscent of Loic Wacquant's, Hancock offers an entertaining and valuable new perspective in the ongoing debates about the organization and reproduction of America's racial order. "American Allegory" is a fluent and nuanced piece of scholarship."--John L. Jackson, Jr., author of Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity

"In "American Allegory," Black Hawk Hancock has written a rich and intricately detailed ethnography of the distinct worlds of lindy hop and steppin'. Here, readers are offered a guide to the ways in which cultural expressions have come to occupy separate racial and spatial realms and how this apparent segregation of race, culture and identity is practiced in the United States today."--Andrew Deener, author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles

In "American Allegory," Black Hawk Hancock has written a rich and intricately detailed ethnography of the distinct worlds of lindy hop and steppin'. Here, readers are offered a guide to the ways in which cultural expressions have come to occupy separate racial and spatial realms and how this apparent segregation of race, culture and identity is practiced in the United States today. --Andrew Deener, author of Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles"

Black Hawk Hancock provides a fascinating dance ethnography situation within the larger context of Chicago s segregated social landscape. By deploying Bourdieu s notion of habitus as a recurring conceptual hook in a carnal sociology reminiscent of Loic Wacquant s, Hancock offers an entertaining and valuable new perspective in the ongoing debates about the organization and reproduction of America s racial order. "American Allegory" is a fluent and nuanced piece of scholarship. --John L. Jackson, Jr., author of Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity"

About the Author:

Black Hawk Hancock is assistant professor of sociology at DePaul University. He is also coauthor of Changing Theories: New Directions in Sociology.

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