Book Description
Figurative images have long played a critical, if largely unexamined, role in Africa--mediating relationships between the colonizer and the colonized, the state and the individual, and the global and the local. This pivotal volume considers the meaning and power of images in African history and culture. Paul S. Landau and Deborah Kaspin have assembled a wide-ranging collection of essays dealing with specific visual forms, including monuments, cinema, cartoons, domestic and professional photography, body art, world fairs, and museum exhibits. The contributors, experts in a number of disciplines, discuss various modes of visuality in Africa and of Africa, investigating the interplay of visual images with personal identity, class, gender, politics, and wealth.
Integral to the argument of the book are over seventy contextualized illustrations. Africans saw foreigners in margarine wrappers, Tintin cartoons, circus posters, and Hollywood movies; westerners gleaned impressions of Africans from colonial exhibitions, Tarzan films, and naturalist magazines. The authors provide concrete examples of the construction of Africa's image in the modern world. They reveal how imperial iconographies sought to understand, deny, control, or transform authority, as well as the astonishing complexity and hybridity of visual communication within Africa itself.
Book Description
In this book, artist and art historian Michael Harris investigates the role of visual representation in the construction of black identities, both real and imagined, in the United States. He focuses particularly on how African American artists have responded to--and even used--stereotypical images in their own works.
Harris shows how, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, racial stereotypes became the dominant mode through which African Americans were represented. These characterizations of blacks formed a substantial part of the foundation of white identity and social power. They also, Harris argues, seeped into African Americans' self-images and undermined their self-esteem.
Harris traces black artists' responses to racist imagery across two centuries, from early works by Henry O. Tanner and Archibald J. Motley Jr., in which African Americans are depicted with dignity, to contemporary works by Kara Walker and Michael Ray Charles, in which derogatory images are recycled to controversial effect. The work of these and other artists--such as John Biggers, Jeff Donaldson, Betye Saar, Juan Logan, and Camille Billops--reflects a wide range of perspectives. Examined together, they offer compelling insight into the profound psychological impact of visual stereotypes on the African American community.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful scholarship!!.......2006-03-16
Excellent scholarship by Michael Harris. A sensitively written history of visual stereotyping and its effects. The book interweaves and points out the importance of Yoruba and other African philosophical heritages and their positive affects on artists, images in the U.S. Really excellent!!!!!!
Outstanding analysis of the power of images.......2003-10-28
The book is as intellectually stimulating as it is visually captivating. Anyone interested in giving serious thought to the history and power of images depicting persons of African descent should read this book. It's thoughtful and thought provoking. A topic that should interest any American, no matter what their race or ethnicity!
Average customer rating:
|
Uncle Tom's Cabin As Visual Culture
Jo-Ann Morgan
Manufacturer: University of Missouri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Criticism
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Schools, Periods & Styles
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Abstract Expressionism
| Ancient & Classical
| Art Deco
| Art Nouveau
| Baroque
| Byzantine
| Constructivism
| Contemporary Art
| Cubism
| Dadaism
| Expressionism
| Fauvism
| Folk Art
| Futurism
| German Expressionism
| Gothic
| Impressionism
| Mannerism
| Medieval
| Modern
| Neoclassical
| Pop
| Post-Impressionism
| Pre-Raphaelite
| Prehistoric & Primitive
| Realism
| Renaissance
| Rococo
| Romanesque
| Romantic
| Surrealism
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
19th Century
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
African-American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 082621715X
Release Date: 2007-04-09 |
Product Description
By personalizing the experiences of American slaves, Harriet Beecher Stowe s Uncle Tom s Cabin had a profound effect on public attitudes toward slavery on the eve of the Civil War, but Stowe s narrative was not the whole story. Jo-Ann Morgan now reveals how prints and paintings of Uncle Tom and other characters in the novel also shaped public perceptions and how this visual culture had its own impact on history. Through illustrations in various editions of the book, advertisements for stage productions, paintings of favorite scenes, and even sheet music for Tom-inspired songs, Stowe s work took on a visual as well as a textual existence. Morgan explores the visual discourse generated by Uncle Tom s Cabin within the context of evolving social conditions and political events of nineteenth-century America to show how images associated with the text came to have lives of their own.
Book Description
Observing black imagery through a century of comics.
This wide-ranging little book spotlights over 100 comics strips, comic books, and graphic novels to feature black characters from all over the world over the last century, and the result is a fascinating journey to, if not enlightenment, then at least away from the horrendous caricatures of yore.
The book begins with the habitually appalling images of blacks as ignorant "coons" in the earliest syndicated strips (Happy Hooligan, Moon Mullins, and The Katzenjammer Kids); continues with the almost-quaint colonialist images of the suppressed Tintin album Tintin in the Congo and such ambiguous figures as Mandrake the Magician's "noble savage" assistant Lothar in the '30s (not to mention Torchy Brown, the first syndicated black character), moving on to such oddities as the offensive Ebony character in Will Eisner's otherwise classic The Spirit from the '40s and '50s. We then continue into the often earnest attempts at '60s integration in such strips as Peanuts (and comic books such as the Fantastic Four), as well as the first wave of "black strips" like Wee Pals, juxtaposed with the shocking satire of underground comics such as R. Crumb's incendiary Angefood McSpade. Also investigated is the increased use of blacks in super-hero comic books such as Uncanny X-Men and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, as well as syndicated strips like Friday Foster and Quincy in the '70s (to say nothing of Beetle Bailey's controversial Lt. Flap). From Cartoon Coons to the Boondocks wraps up from the '80s to now, with the increased visibility of blacks, often in works actually produced by blacks, all the way to the South African strip Madam & Eve, Aaron McGruder's pointed daily The Boondocks, and Ho Che Anderson's Martin Luther King biography King.
Each strip, comic, or graphic novel is spotlighted via a compact but instructive 200-word essay and a representative illustration. The book is augmented by a context-setting introduction, an extensive source list and bibliography, and a foreword by Charles R. Johnson, the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and winner of the National Book Award for his 1990 novel Middle Passage (and a published cartoonist to boot!).
Customer Reviews:
A Visual History.......2006-01-31
I enjoyed reading the book, I always had an interest in comics growing up.
I would very much like for you to suggest to me any similar reading material.
Somewhat disappointing.......2003-09-23
This book is somewhat disappointing on a couple of grounds. For one thing, Stromberg only uses one panel from each of the comics he discusses, thus the reader has a difficult time getting these particular comics in full context (although his accompanying notes are good). This and (as Charles Johnson noted in his prologue), the "Negro Comics" of Black newspapers of the 1900s are given somewhat short shrift as a means of comparison. Cartoons dealing with the portrayal of Africans as simian-like savages are used so frequently that the point that this stereotype was common among cartoonists is beaten to the ground.
These flaws aside, it's a good introduction to the subject of Black protrayals in the cartoons. Aaron McGruder (of "Boondocks" fame) wrote his college thesis on this subject, cartoonist Tim Jackson has a website on vintage Black cartoons, and B. Keith Murphy who is a professor at Ft. Valley State University (Georgia) have also done research on this topic. I hope this book encourages them to publish their studies.
Book Description
Michele Wallace burst into public consciousness with the 1979 publication of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, a pioneering critique of the misogyny of the Black Power movement and the effects of racism and sexism on black women. Since then, Wallace has produced an extraordinary body of journalism and criticism engaging with popular culture and gender and racial politics. This collection brings together more than fifty of the articles she has written over the past fifteen years. Included alongside many of her best-known pieces are previously unpublished essays as well as interviews conducted with Wallace about her work. Dark Designs and Visual Culture charts the development of a singular, pathbreaking black feminist consciousness.
Beginning with a new introduction in which Wallace reflects on her life and career, this volume includes other autobiographical essays; articles focused on popular culture, the arts, and literary theory; and explorations of issues in black visual culture. Wallace discusses growing up in Harlem; how she dealt with the media attention and criticism she received for Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, which was published when she was just twenty-seven years old; and her relationship with her family, especially her mother, the well-known artist Faith Ringgold. The many articles devoted to black visual culture range from the historical tragedy of the Hottentot Venus, an African woman displayed as a curiosity in nineteenth-century Europe, to films that sexualize the black body—such as Watermelon Woman, Gone with the Wind, and Paris Is Burning. Whether writing about the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas hearings, rap music, the Million Man March, Toshi Reagon, multiculturalism, Marlon Riggs, or a nativity play in Bedford Stuyvesant, Wallace is a bold, incisive critic. Dark Designs and Visual Culture brings the scope of her career and thought into sharp focus.
Customer Reviews:
An amazing collection of essays..........2006-01-08
I read this collection of essays last summer, and I'm impressed with Wallace's balanced analyses of popular culture and cinema past and present. Wallace is an astute critic and scholar, but what astounded me were the early chapters that centered on her life. She should publish a memoir, as she has an acute ability to draw the reader into her personal life.
However, I do have one criticism. I do not like the way she handled bell hooks, and I'm not talking about Wallace's essays on the self-proclaimed diva of Black Feminism. In the early chapters, Wallace apologizes for writing the pieces on hooks, which undermines the excellent essays. The tone of Wallace's apology comes across as forced and insincere. bell hooks trashes everybody, and she has NEVER apologized or regretted a word she has put on paper. Just as Postcolonial critic Sara Suleri did a decade ago when she chastised hooks, Wallace should have stuck to her guns...Nonetheless, the essays on hooks are provocative, valid, and downright juicy.
Book Description
In Art on My Mind, bell hooks, a leading cultural critic, responds to the ongoing dialogues about producing, exhibiting, and criticizing art and aesthetics in an art world increasingly concerned with identity politics. Always concerned with the liberatory black struggle, hooks positions her writings on visual politics within the ever-present question of how art can be an empowering and revolutionary force within the black community.
Customer Reviews:
Thought-provoking, but flawed.......2005-12-06
This book is, at its best, thought-provoking, in that its discussions of art from an African-American feminist perspective employ a voice not often heard in the field. However, there are flaws to the work, in the opinion of this reviewer. First, not all of the works discussed are illustrated, which makes it difficult at times to perceive what the author is discussing. Second, while the essay chapters are strong, the "talking art with" chapters are less so: the artist featured in each chapter comes across as more of a foil to hooks's lengthy expositions. This, combined with an overuse of the term "palimpsest" throughout the book, lends a note of arrogance to the writing.
hooks interesting book.......2000-09-24
This is the one book that hooks has published that is genuinely interesting. It isn't a watershed of insights, but it does have some interesting pieces that provoke thought without her usual strident, oppressive tone, that tends to shut out discussion rather than encourage it. The book is not artfully written, but it is readable, and dips less into the usual repetition and redundancy of her other work.
Art on My Mind: Visual Politics by bell hooks.......2000-07-27
hooks challenges all who reads this book find the importance in their own histories. She makes the reader aware of the lack of representation of African American artists as well as the lack of representation of minorities and women in art history. She looks at more than just the injustice of the whole system but also the importance of images in peoples lives.
hooks has a very refreshing style of writing in that she is not afraid to allow the reader to enter her personal life. I felt as if I were involved in a personal conversation with her.
Book Description
A guide to resources for use with K-12 students, this selective volume lists substantial, easily accessible resources on African American visual artists. In total, 639 resources, referencing 1,174 individual artists are annotated and include works about the artists as well as the contexts in which the African American artist is situated.
Average customer rating:
|
The Fact of Blackness: Frantz Fanon and Visual Representation
Manufacturer: Bay Press (WA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
| Arts & Literature
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Ethnic & National
| Family & Childhood
| General
| Historical
| Large Print
| Leaders & Notable People
| Memoirs
| People, A-Z
| Professionals & Academics
| Reference & Collections
| Regional Canada
| Regional U.S.
| Specific Groups
| Sports & Outdoors
| Travel
General
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
African American
| Regional
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary Art
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Groups
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
African-American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
A Dying Colonialism (Fanon, Frantz)
-
The Wretched of the Earth
ASIN: 0941920437 |
Book Description
w/Homi K Bhabha, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, others
Book Description
This groundbreaking work provides an invaluable addition to the limited literature now available on the visual images associated with slavery and abolition, integrated into a sophisticated analysis of their meaning and legacy today. Moving deftly between text and image, Marcus Wood examines paintings, woodcuts, diaries, nineteenth century short stories and twentieth century criticism. Though much has been written on the institution of slavery, rarely are the images subject to the sort of close reading applied to written sources. There are grand narratives on large academic canvases, and there are heroic sculptures and friezes, almost always built to commemorate the emancipation moment. The question remains: are they adequate, or even decent, tools for memory ? This book tries to find ways of reading images which emerge as ever more contradictory in terms of what they say about white representation of slavery, and what they imply for black and white understanding of this inheritance.
Throughout this important volume, the author underscores two vital themes: one, that visual presentation of slavery in England and America has been utterly dishonest to its subject, and the other a meditation on whether the ruptures of the slave experience - middle passage, bondage, and torture -- can be adequately represented and remembered. As the author writes, "This history is not over, and is evolving. The hope is that the visual representation of slavery will not continue to be unseen, that the disguises we impose on what we look at must be seen beyond."
Customer Reviews:
Why Slavery Matters........2006-02-16
Throughout this book, Wood stresses the fact that there is absolutely no way to truly apreciate the severity of slavery through recollection, but that it is important to try. It is important to understand just how widespread the phenomenon was, and how this tragedy in human history still resonates loudly within our psyches. One major point of the book is how populations who had been heavily involved in the slave trade, starting with the British and extending to the US North, began to sugar-coat their involvement by airing opinions of moral superiority over others. The best and most famous example being Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", where Africans who were enslaved actually end up better off than their free African counterparts due to the fact that they become Christian. The slaves were redeemed through their brush with western cutlure (ie slavery). Other examples of visual evidence include the middle passage slave ship diagrams, runaway slave reward notices, inhuman iron helmets and shackles. Each area examined is brought to life by Wood's seemingly unending arsenal of background information and nontrivial ties to art history.
The book's real strength lies in how it can in fact bring the reality of slavery back, to confront western culture with it as something that still lingers, but with an almost Freudian degree of mass-denial. Slavery in the US existed longer than it hasn't, the economic ripple-effect alone should be self-evident. We are still in the wake of this dark era in our culture; Wood puts us on the therapist's couch and makes us remember, rather than suppress, these memories.
this book is SWEET!!!.......2005-02-21
this book is incredibly interesting and engaging. Wood is insightful and it is not at all tedious to read. it was throught-provoking and i actually looked forward to reading it. plus, he's a really cool guy.
Woodcuts, paintings, diaries, short stories and artifacts.......2001-02-15
Dozens of images of archives across Britain and North America on Atlantic slavery are presented in Blind Memory, which provides an artful blend of images and words reflecting 19th century Afro-American slave experiences. Woodcuts, paintings, diaries, short stories and artifacts are examined in this study of visual representations of slavery.
Books:
- JLA Vol. 7: Tower of Babel
- Life Studies: Stories
- Little Blue and Little Yellow
- LL Cool J's Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywood's Fittest Star
- Lonely Planet One People: Many Journeys (Pictorials)
- Looking Out, Looking In (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) (Wadsworth Series in Communication Studies)
- Making Polymer Clay Beads: Step-by-Step Techniques for Creating Beautiful Ornamental Beads
- Man Corn: Cannibalism and Violence in the Prehistoric American Southwest
- Map Use & Analysis
- Marc Chagall (Jewish Encounters)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Death of Friends: A Henry Rios Mystery
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Prentice Hall Laboratory Manual for Introductory Chemistry
- The Painted Bird
- The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles
- Waiting for Wings
- Walkin' the Dog
- Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation
- Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art
- COMMON MALAYAN BIRDS
Artificial Africas: Colonial Images in the Times of Globalization (Re-Encounters With Colonialism)
In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885-1960
In/Sight: African Photographers 1940 to the Present
Flash Afrique! Photography from West Africa
Photography's Other Histories (Objects/Histories)
