In Hemispheric Blackface, Danielle Roper examines blackface performance and its relationship to twentieth- and twenty-first-century nationalist fictions of mestizaje, creole nationalism, and other versions of postracialism in the Americas. Challenging both the dominance of the US minstrel tradition and the focus on the nation in blackface studies, Roper maps a hemispheric network of racial impersonation in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, and Miami. She analyzes blackface performance in the aftermath of the turn to multiculturalism in Latin America, the emergence of modern blackness in Jamaica, and the rise of Barack Obama in the United States, showing how blackface remains embedded in cultural entertainment. Contending that the Americas are linked by repeating nationalist fictions of postracialism, colorblindness, and myths of racial democracy, Roper assesses how acts of impersonation mediate the ongoing power of these narratives and enable people to comprehend advancements and reversals in racial equality. Rather than simply framing blackface as liberatory or oppressive, Roper traces its emergence from a shared history of slavery and the varied politics of racial enjoyment throughout the hemisphere.
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. Scenes of Racial Enjoyment in the Hemispheric Fold
- Chapter One. Blackface and Racial Scripts at the Andean Fiesta: Staging the Slave Past in the Andes
- Chapter Two. Doing Antiblackness in the Hemispheric Fold: Blackface Performance in Miami in the Age of Obama
- Chapter Three. Flipping the Racial Script: Blackface Performance as Resistance in Colombia
- Chapter Four. The Postcolonial Below: Roots Theater and Black Enjoyment in Jamaica
- Conclusion. Hemispheric Blackface and Its Afterlives
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduïu al vostre compte
