Seems like murder here southern violence and the blues tradition / [electronic resource] :
Adam Gussow.
- University of Chicago Press, 2002.
- 1 online resource (xiv, 341 p.)
Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-326) and index.
"I'm tore down" -- Lynching and the birth of a blues tradition -- "Make my getaway" -- Southern violence and blues entrepreneurship in W.C. Handy's Father of the blues -- Dis(re)memberment blues -- Narratives of abjection and redress -- "Shoot myself a cop" -- Mamie Smith's "Crazy blues" as social text -- Guns, knives, and buckets of blood -- The predicament of blues culture -- "The blade already crying in my flesh" -- Zora Neale Hurston's blues narratives.
Winner of the 2004 C. Hugh Holman Award from the Society for the Study of Southern Literature. Seems Like Murder Here offers a revealing new account of the blues tradition. Far from mere laments about lost loves and hard times, the blues emerge in this provocative study as vital responses to spectacle lynchings and the violent realities of African American life in the Jim Crow South. With brilliant interpretations of both classic songs and literary works, from the autobiographies of W.C. Handy, David Honeyboy Edwards, and B.B. King to the poetry of Langston Hughes and the novels of Zora Neal.
African Americans--Intellectual life.--Southern States African Americans--Social conditions.--Southern States Blues (Music)--History.--Southern States Blues (Music) in literature. Violence in literature. Race relations in literature. American literature--African American authors--History and criticism. Violence--History.--Southern States Fine Arts. MUSIC--Genres & Styles--Blues. MUSIC--Genres & Styles--Soul & R 'n B. Blues. Rassenkonflikt. Blues. Gewalttätigkeit.
Southern States--Intellectual life. Southern States--Race relations. USA--Südstaaten.