Inventing Stereotype

Reviews / Votes

"Through a careful, refreshing, and compelling historicized analysis, Berger's Inventing Stereotype demonstrates that there is no simple 'seeing' of stereotypes in the history of American art. Berger shows us how and when the stereotype became a problem for artists and art critics and why the concept reveals more about the historically situated viewer than the artwork itself. Inventing Stereotype offers a much-needed corrective to our misunderstanding of stereotype, and in a fine and poignant final chapter on the painter Archibald Motley, Berger proves himself masterful in helping us see artworks through and beyond our preconceptions." -- Kenneth W. Warren, author of "What Was African American Literature?" "A remarkable feat of clarity and nuance on a topic made for simplicity. There's so much here to like (e.g., on Eugene O'Neill and Archibald Motley), but I especially appreciate Berger on the crucial role of historical context." -- Nell Irvin Painter, author of "The History of White People" "Berger's immensely readable account of how stereotypes-of Jews, of African Americans, indeed of virtually everyone else in the early twentieth century-shift as they become more or less useful to the groups portrayed, is a tour de force. Simultaneously funny and sad, Inventing Stereotype reveals how caricatures are still used as hammers on both sides of the political spectrum: nothing new here, folks. What is new is the brilliance of Berger's consideration not only of the functions of such stereotypes but of the very category of the stereotype, which was coined by an American Jewish thinker and shaped by antisemitic stereotypes." -- Sander Gilman, author of "Jewish Self-Hatred" and "Doc or Quack: Science and Anti-science in Modern Medicine" "Berger's Inventing Stereotype offers a clear, concise, and accessible contribution to the literature on arts and racial representation." -- Tina Post, author of "Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression"