Listening for Africa

Freedom, Modernity, and the Logic of Black Music's African Origins

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music, Theory & Criticism, Ethnomusicology, History & Criticism, Reference
Cover of the book Listening for Africa by David F. Garcia, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David F. Garcia ISBN: 9780822373117
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: July 27, 2017
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: David F. Garcia
ISBN: 9780822373117
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: July 27, 2017
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Listening for Africa David F. Garcia explores how a diverse group of musicians, dancers, academics, and activists engaged with the idea of black music and dance’s African origins between the 1930s and 1950s. Garcia examines the work of figures ranging from Melville J. Herskovits, Katherine Dunham, and Asadata Dafora to Duke Ellington, Dámaso Pérez Prado, and others who believed that linking black music and dance with Africa and nature would help realize modernity’s promises of freedom in the face of fascism and racism in Europe and the Americas, colonialism in Africa, and the nuclear threat at the start of the Cold War. In analyzing their work, Garcia traces how such attempts to link black music and dance to Africa unintentionally reinforced the binary relationships between the West and Africa, white and black, the modern and the primitive, science and magic, and rural and urban. It was, Garcia demonstrates, modernity’s determinations of unraced, heteronormative, and productive bodies, and of scientific truth that helped defer the realization of individual and political freedom in the world.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Listening for Africa David F. Garcia explores how a diverse group of musicians, dancers, academics, and activists engaged with the idea of black music and dance’s African origins between the 1930s and 1950s. Garcia examines the work of figures ranging from Melville J. Herskovits, Katherine Dunham, and Asadata Dafora to Duke Ellington, Dámaso Pérez Prado, and others who believed that linking black music and dance with Africa and nature would help realize modernity’s promises of freedom in the face of fascism and racism in Europe and the Americas, colonialism in Africa, and the nuclear threat at the start of the Cold War. In analyzing their work, Garcia traces how such attempts to link black music and dance to Africa unintentionally reinforced the binary relationships between the West and Africa, white and black, the modern and the primitive, science and magic, and rural and urban. It was, Garcia demonstrates, modernity’s determinations of unraced, heteronormative, and productive bodies, and of scientific truth that helped defer the realization of individual and political freedom in the world.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Anti-Crisis by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Constructing the Black Masculine by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Culture and the Question of Rights by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Tendencies by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book The Resurgence of Conservatism in Anglo-American Democracies by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Mutual Impressions by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Techniques of Pleasure by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book God of Many Names by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Clothing and Difference by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Strange Future by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book How Lawyers Lose Their Way by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Statistical Panic by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book People Get Ready by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Terry Sanford by David F. Garcia
Cover of the book Sentimental Collaborations by David F. Garcia
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy