
Some of These Days
Black Stars, Jazz Aesthetics, and Modernist Culture
James Donald(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 30. July 2015
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-19-935401-6 (ISBN)
Description
Some of These Days proffers a compelling cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance's vast influence abroad, with a dual focus on the world's first two major African American stars: Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. But Donald's book extends beyond pure dual biography to recreate the rich community of actors, architects, poets, directors, and musicians who interacted with--and were influenced by--each other. James Donald highlights how the sense of excitement and artistic renewal ushered in with the "New Negro Movement"' reverberated far beyond Harlem to cities such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Throughout his chronicle, Donald underscores the relationship of African American aesthetics to the modernist movement that flourished from the 1920s until the end of World War II. Vivid portraits of eccentric and popular artists like the T. S. Eliot, HD, Andre Gide, Carl Van Vechten, Marlene Dietrich, Josef von Sternberg, Jean Gabin, and Adolf Loos, among others, animate the sweeping narrative. Traversing countries and artforms, Some of These Days illustrates the immense cross-cultural collaboration of film, song, dance, and literature that coalesced to create modernist culture--where the new rhythms of the machine age were gleefully embraced, allowing art to consider the new possibilities of cosmopolitanism in a modern world.
Reviews / Votes
Some of These Days is a deft and engrossing double helix: a cultural history of international modernism through interwoven chapters on its two greatest African American stars, Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson. Tracing their unparalleled impact across a variety of fields, from the stage to the screen, in architecture as well as politics, Donald demonstrates that Baker and Robeson - with their outsized charisma, their artistic daring, and their peripatetic restlessness - were the 'barometers' of the new age. * Brent Hayes Edwards, author of The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism * Recommended. * J. W. Hall, CHOICE *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
50 black and white halftones and 8 full color plates
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
599 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-935401-6 (9780199354016)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€18.99
Available for download

E-Book
04/2015
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€23.99
Available for download
Person
James Donald is Professor of Film Studies at the University of New South Wales in Australia. His books include Imagining the Modern City and Sentimental Education: Schooling, Popular Culture and the Regulation of Liberty.
Author
Professor of Film StudiesProfessor of Film Studies, The University of New South Wales
Content
Introduction A Migration of Stars ; Chapter 1 New Negro ; Paul Robeson's Formation in Harlem ; Chapter 2 Between the Jungle and the Skyscraper ; Josephine Baker in Paris and Berlin ; Chapter 3 Ballet mecanique ; Jazz Aesthetics and Modernist Film ; Chapter 4 Jazz in Stone and Steel ; Josephine Baker and Modern Architecture ; Chapter 5 Borderlines ; Race, Cosmopolitanism and the Modern Uncanny ; Chapter 6 Down the River of Dreams ; Songs of Exile and Nostalgia ; Chapter 7 Here I Stand ; Performing Politics ; Coda: Nick's Bar, New York City ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index