The Invention of Race
Black Culture and the Politics of Representation
Tommy L. Lott(Author)
Blackwell Publishers
Published on 10. December 1998
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-631-21018-4 (ISBN)
Description
Argues that many forms of African-American cultural expression display resistance through appropriation, and reconstitution, of denigrating representations fostered by the dominant racist culture. Beginning with "King Kong Lives: Racist Discourse and the Negro-Ape Metaphor", he goes on in subsequent chapters to discuss slavery, cultural identity, art, music, and film, engaging in a wide variety of issues pertaining to the politics of representation. Several chapters focus on social and political issues surrounding various conceptions of African-American culture, while others are devoted to more specific questions regarding the aesthetics and politics of various forms of African-American cultural expression. DuBois is a key figure here. His ideas, as traced in the title essay "DuBois on the Invention of Race", inform Lott's nonessentialist position in the chapter "A No-Theory Theory of Black Cinema". Alain Locke is another important voice for the author, as seen in his study "Black Consciousness in the Art of Sargent John son" (the Harlem Renaissance artist).
There is also coverage of resistance in rap music, both with an eye to black cultural norms proscribing minstrelsy ("Black Vernacular Representation and Cultural Malpractice"), as well as to the social conditions of the so-called black underclass ("Marooned in America: Black Urban Youth Culture and Social Pathology").
There is also coverage of resistance in rap music, both with an eye to black cultural norms proscribing minstrelsy ("Black Vernacular Representation and Cultural Malpractice"), as well as to the social conditions of the so-called black underclass ("Marooned in America: Black Urban Youth Culture and Social Pathology").
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
notes, bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
475 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-631-21018-4 (9780631210184)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
12/1998
1st Edition
Wiley
€63.27
Shipment within 15-20 days
Content
Introduction. 1. Racist Discourse and the Negro-Ape Metaphor. 2. Slavery, Modernity and the Reclamation of Anterior Cultures. 3. Frederick Douglass on the Myth of the Black Rapist. 4. Du Bois on the Invention of Race. 5. Black Consciousness in the Art of Sargent Johnson. 6. Black Vernacular Representation and Cultural Malpractice. 7. Marooned in America: Black Urban Youth Culture and Social Pathology. 8. Black Marxist in Babylon: Bayard Rustin and the 1968 UFT Strike. 9. A No-Theory Theory of Contemporary Black Cinema. 10. Prime Time Blackness. NotesBibliographyIndex