In Search Of The Black Fantastic: Politics And Popular Culture In The Post-civil Rights Era (transgressing Boundaries: Studies In Black Politics And Black Communities)
by Richard Iton /
2008 / English / PDF
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Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to
formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as
a means of forging community and effecting political change.
Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to
formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as
a means of forging community and effecting political change.
But as Richard Iton shows in this provocative and insightful
volume, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights
movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower
conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a
significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social
spaces. Iton offers an original portrait of the relationship
between popular culture and institutionalized politics tracing the
connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine
Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley, and Erykah Badu and those
individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making
arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender and
sexuality-and diaspora and coloniality-the author also illustrates
how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper
location of politics, and politics itself.
But as Richard Iton shows in this provocative and insightful
volume, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights
movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower
conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a
significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social
spaces. Iton offers an original portrait of the relationship
between popular culture and institutionalized politics tracing the
connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine
Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley, and Erykah Badu and those
individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making
arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender and
sexuality-and diaspora and coloniality-the author also illustrates
how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper
location of politics, and politics itself.
Ranging from theater to film, and comedy to literature and
contemporary music,
Ranging from theater to film, and comedy to literature and
contemporary music,In Search of the Black Fantastic
In Search of the Black Fantastic is an
engaging and sophisticated examination of how black popular culture
has challenged our understandings of the aesthetic and its
relationship to politics.
is an
engaging and sophisticated examination of how black popular culture
has challenged our understandings of the aesthetic and its
relationship to politics.
