Blackface minstrelsy is associated particularly with popular culture in the United States and Britain, yet despite the continual two-way flow of performers, troupes and companies across the Atlantic, there is little in Britain to match the scholarship of blackface studies in the States. This book concentrates on the distinctively British trajectory of minstrelsy. The historical study and cultural analysis of minstrelsy is important because of the significant role it played in Britain as a form of song, music and theatrical entertainment. Minstrelsy had a marked impact on popular music, dance and other aspects of popular culture, both in Britain and the United States. Its impact in the United States fed into significant song and music genres that were assimilated in Britain, from ragtime and jazz onwards, but prior to these influences, minstrelsy in Britain developed many distinct features and was adapted to operate within various conventions, themes and traditions in British popular culture. Pickering provides a convincing counter-argument to the assumption among writers in the United States that blackface was exclusively American and its British counterpart purely imitative. Minstrelsy was not confined to its value as song, music and dance. Jokes at the expense of black people along with demeaning racial stereotypes were integral to minstrel shows. As a form of popular entertainment, British minstrelsy created a cultural low-Other that offered confirmation of white racial ascendancy and imperial dominion around the world. The book attends closely to how this influence on colonialism and imperialism operated and proved ideologically so effective. At the same time British minstrelsy cannot be reduced to its racist and imperialist connections. Enormously important as those connections are, Pickering demonstrates the complexity of the subject by insisting that the minstrel show and minstrel performers are understood also in terms of their own theatrical dynamics, t

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter V. The beginning of the 19th century--the galaxy of poets then--anecdotes of Campbell--the lyrics of Eliza Cooke and Mackay. The most remarkable period in the history of Literature and Science, perhaps, ever known, is from the commencement of the 19th century to the present time. For though the astonishing achievements of Science during this period have been such as to give us, ' in appearance, a strong utilitarian character; yet, it must be admitted, we think, that the progress of poetic literature has kept pace with our mechanical triumphs. The last half century is distinguished, like the Elizabethan era, for the long list of noble poets who adorned it; at the head of whom may be noticed Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, and Campbell, who, in every diversified form, have enriched our literature with the brightest gems of Poesy. But where are now those refulgent stars that once excited our admiration and shed a blaze of glory over the poetic firmament? One by one they have disappeared from amongst us--one by one they have passed "that awful bourne none e'er repassed," and their disappearance has left a blank in the literary world that has not yet been supplied. The poems of these bards are undoubtedly of the highest order; but Wordsworth, Byron, Scott, and Campbell, in this galaxy of genius, can only be considered as lyrical writers. Many of Scott's songs are spirited compositions, which sustain their deserved popularity. The songs by Byron are few, but worthy of his genius. Those by Campbell do not comprise thirty in number, but they can scarcely be excelled for vigour and beauty. His martial songs are the most magnificent effusions in our language. They glow with heroic thoughts expressed...

In this intriguing study, Robert Nowatzki reveals the unexpected relationships between blackface entertainment and antislavery sentiment in the United States and Britain. He contends that the ideological ambiguity of both phenomena enabled the similarities between early minstrelsy and abolitionism in their depictions of African Americans, as well as their appropriations of each other's rhetoric, imagery, sentiment, and characterization. Nowatzki reveals how the most popular form of theatrical entertainment and the most significant reform movement of nineteenth-century Britain and America helped define cultural representations of African Americans.

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