Fictional blues : narrative self-invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White /

The familiar story of Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for guitar virtuosity, and the violent stereotypes evoked by legendary blues "bad men" like Stagger Lee undergird the persistent racial myths surrounding "...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mack, Kimberly (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]
Series:African American intellectual history.
Subjects:
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction
  • The narrative blues tradition : Tall tales, myths, and Black American folklore
  • Shug, Big Mama, and Amy : Autobiographical fictions and addictions
  • "I was astounded at what I heard" : Robert Johnson's autobiographical and biographical afterlives
  • From John Anthony Gillis to Jack White : A study in blues self-invention
  • The blues apprenticeship : Racialized conventions of the acolyte
  • Afterword.