In Bodies in Dissent Daphne A. Brooks argues that from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth; black transatlantic activists; actors; singers; and other entertainers frequently transformed the alienating conditions of social and political marginalization into modes of self-actualization through performance. Brooks considers the work of African American; Anglo; and racially ambiguous performers in a range of popular entertainment; including racial melodrama; spectacular theatre; moving panorama exhibitions; Pan-Africanist musicals; Victorian magic shows; religious and secular song; spiritualism; and dance. She describes how these entertainers experimented with different ways of presenting their bodies in publicmdash;through dress; movement; and theatrical technologiesmdash;to defamiliarize the spectacle of ldquo;blacknessrdquo; in the transatlantic imaginary.Brooks pieces together reviews; letters; playbills; fiction; and biography in order to reconstruct not only the contexts of African American performance but also the reception of the stagings of ldquo;bodily insurgencyrdquo; which she examines. Throughout the book; she juxtaposes unlikely texts and entertainers in order to illuminate the complicated transatlantic cultural landscape in which black performers intervened. She places Adah Isaacs Menken; a star of spectacular theatre; next to Sojourner Truth; showing how both used similar strategies of physical gesture to complicate one-dimensional notions of race and gender. She also considers Henry Box Brownrsquo;s public re-enactments of his escape from slavery; the Pan-Africanist discourse of Bert Williamsrsquo;s and George Walkerrsquo;s musical In Dahomey (1902ndash;04); and the relationship between gender politics; performance; and New Negro activism in the fiction of the novelist and playwright Pauline Hopkins and the postbellum stage work of the cakewalk dancer and choreographer Aida Overton Walker. Highlighting the integral connections between performance and the construction of racial identities; Brooks provides a nuanced understanding of the vitality; complexity; and influence of black performance in the United States and throughout the black Atlantic.
#1390150 in eBooks 2014-02-17 2014-02-17File Name: B00HR8OE1O
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. This is a great masterpiece of Italian realism and Vergas best workBy scott goffThis is a great masterpiece of Italian realism and Vergas best work. It is the beginning of the Italian novels of the south and in particular the village life of Sicilia. Levis Christ Stopped at Eboli; Lampedusas Gatopardo; Scia Scia etc. all find their roots in Verga. It is not an easy read; almost Faulknerian (Faulkner may well have read Lawrences translation) in its demands on the reader. But well worth the trouble and a must for anyone seriously interested in Italian fiction. D.H. Lawrences translation is wonderful- it takes no prisoners- if anything its too literal. I read it and the original Italian side by side and admire and respect his achievement. Rarely do we get such a high quality of both author and translator.2 of 7 people found the following review helpful. real literature; but somewhat slow and depressingBy A CustomerThe setting and the people of rural Italy at the end of the last century is thoroughly and thoughfully depicted. The story itself could be told rather quickly; but here it is told in great detail.
