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Signifyin(g), Sanctifyin' and Slam Dunking: A Reader in African American Expressive Culture - Hardcover
Synopsis
Observers of American society have long noted the distinctive contribution of African Americans to the nation's cultural life. We find references to African American music and dance, black forms of oral expression, even a black style of playing basketball. But what do such terms really mean? Is it legitimate to talk about a distinct African American aesthetic, or is it simply a vestige of an outmoded racial essentialism? What makes a particular form of cultural expression "black", other than the fact that some African Americans may practice it? These are some of the questions addressed in the readings gathered in this volume. The essays spring from a variety of disciplines and cover a range of topics, from the communal ritual of the ring shout to the evolution of rap to the improvisational genius of Michael Jordan. While each piece focuses on a different aspect of African American expressive culture, together they seek to reveal a set of creative principles, techniques and practices - a cultural aesthetic - that is consistent and resilient.
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Review
This is the Golden Age of African-American cultural scholarship, and this anthology brings together some of the animating ideas and important documents out of which that scholarship has grown.--Roger D. Abrahams, author of Singing the Master: The Emergence of African American Culture in the Plantation South
Despite the recent flourishing of seminal and influential works in African-American literary theory, cultural studies, and cultural history, there exists no single book that offers interpretive readings of African-American expressive culture across disciplinary boundaries that is viable as an undergraduate text. I most certainly would order this collection for my class.--John Gennari, University of Virginia
About the Author
Gena Dagel Caponi is Associate Professor of American studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and author of Paul Bowles: Romantic Savage.
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- PublisherUniversity of Massachusetts Press
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 1558491821
- ISBN 13 9781558491823
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages464
- EditorCaponi Gena Dagel
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