Synopses & Reviews
Smart women, sophisticated ladies, savvy writers . . . Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Lois Long, Jessie Fauset, Dawn Powell, Mary McCarthy, and others imagined New York as a place where they could claim professional status, define urban independence, and shrug off confining feminine roles. It might be said that during the 1920s and 1930s these literary artists painted the town red on the pages of magazines like
Vanity Fair and the
New Yorker.
Playing Smart, Catherine Keyser's homage to their literary genius, is a captivating celebration of their causes and careers.
Through humor writing, this andquot;smart setandquot; expressed both sides of the story-promoting their urbanity and wit while using irony and caricature to challenge feminine stereotypes. Their fiction raised questions about what it meant to be a woman in the public eye, how gender roles would change because men and women were working together, and how the growth of the magazine industry would affect women's relationships to their bodies and minds. Keyser provides a refreshing and informative chronicle, saluting the value of being andquot;smartandquot; as incisive and innovative humor showed off the wit and talent of women writers and satirized the fantasy world created by magazines.
Review
andquot;With a sense of humor and style, and a smartness of her own, Keyser takes up the cause and the career of a 'smart' set of women writers who made a distinct mark on modern American culture.andquot;
Review
andquot;Keyser's book is a pleasure to read not only because it is incisive and informative, but also because the writer's own wit is everywhere apparent. Her sparkling prose, wedding style, and critical acumen shows Keyser to be an accomplished student of the writers she studies.andquot;
Review
"It is, academically speaking, a smart book."
Clio
Review
andquot;Keyser contributes invaluable insights into how women crafted professional and public identities in the pages of American periodicals at the turn of the twentieth century.
Review
andquot;Black Resonanceand#160;is a tremendously innovative, illuminating, and eloquent study that promises to break important new ground in twentieth-century African American literature and literary criticism, black feminist cultural criticism, and popular music and performance studies. Lordi couples her analytical rigor with elegant and imaginative prose that helps us to hear more clearly the resounding voices of women singers in black letters.andquot;and#160;
Review
andldquo;In language that sparkles and gains momentum, Black Resonance refreshes the conversation about how black music, from the slave songs to hip hop, and literature speak to one another. Offering a brilliant new lexicon for black American cultural analysis, Lordiandrsquo;s book is very welcome required reading for those charting new directions in the field.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Lordi explodes assumptions about the relationship between black writers and black musicians. By blending insightful cultural history, magnificent close readings, and superb archival research, she refines recent scholarship that reevaluates civil rights era African American literature, the Black Arts Movement, and 21st-century poetry. Her argumentand#39;s elegant intertwining of cutting-edge theory, enrapturing descriptions of vocal practice, and clear commentary on literature reminds readers of how much rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry can explain about black creativity. Highly recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;It is, academically speaking, a smart book.andquot;
Synopsis
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Lois Long, Jessie Fauset, Dawn Powell, Mary McCarthy, and others imagined New York as a place where they could claim professional status, define urban independence, and shrug off confining feminine roles. Their fiction raised questions about what it meant to be a woman in the public eye, how gender roles would change because men and women were working together, and how the growth of the magazine industry would affect women's relationships to their bodies and minds. Playing Smart celebrates their causes and careers and pays homage to their literary genius.
Synopsis
"With a sense of humor and style, and a smartness of her own, Keyser takes up the cause and the career of a 'smart' set of women writers who made a distinct mark on modern American culture." -Maria DiBattista, author of Fast-Talking Dames Smart women, sophisticated ladies, savvy writers . . . Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, Lois Long, Jessie Fauset, Dawn Powell, Mary McCarthy, and others imagined New York as a place where they could claim professional status, define urban independence, and shrug off confining feminine roles. It might be said that during the 1920s and 1930s these literary artists painted the town red on the pages of magazines like Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. Playing Smart, Catherine Keyser's homage to their literary genius, is a captivating celebration of their causes and careers. Through humor writing, this "smart set" expressed both sides of the story-promoting their urbanity and wit while using irony and caricature to challenge feminine stereotypes. Their fiction raised questions about what it meant to be a woman in the public eye, how gender roles would change because men and women were working together, and how the growth of the magazine industry would affect women's relationships to their bodies and minds. Keyser provides a refreshing and informative chronicle, saluting the value of being "smart" as incisive and innovative humor showed off the wit and talent of women writers and satirized the fantasy world created by magazines. CATHERINE KEYSER is an assistant professor of English at the University of South Carolina. A volume in the American Literatures Initiative series
Synopsis
Black Resonance analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. The book focuses on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s; each chapter pairs one writer with one singer to crystallize the artistic practice they share: lyricism, sincerity, understatement, haunting, and the creation of a signature voice.
About the Author
Catherine Keyser is an assistant professor of English at the University of South Carolina.
Table of Contents
and#160;Acknowledgments
Introduction: Black Resonance
1. Vivid Lyricism: Richard Wright and Bessie Smith's Blues
2. The Timbre of Sincerity: Mahalia Jackson's Gospel Sound and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
3. Understatement:and#160;James Baldwin, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
4. Haunting: Gayl Jones's Corregidora and Billie Holiday's andquot;Strange Fruitandquot;
5. Signature Voices: Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin, and the Black Arts Movement
Epilogue: andquot;At Lastandquot;: Etta James, Poetry, Hip Hop
Notes
Index