Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
American Allegory: Lindy Hop and the Racial Imagination

American Allegory: Lindy Hop and the Racial Imagination

Hancock, Black Hawk

Paperback

AnthropologyGeneral Sociology

ISBN10: 022604310X
ISBN13: 9780226043104
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: May 27 2013
Pages: 280
Weight: 0.85
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Perhaps, wrote Ralph Ellison more than seventy years ago, the zoot suit contains profound political meaning; perhaps the symmetrical frenzy of the Lindy-hop conceals clues to great potential power. As Ellison noted then, many of our most mundane cultural forms are larger and more important than they appear, taking on great significance and an unexpected depth of meaning. What he saw in the power of the Lindy Hop-the dance that Life magazine once billed as America's True National Folk Dance-would spread from black America to make a lasting impression on white America and offer us a truly compelling means of understanding our culture. But with what hidden implications?

In American Allegory, Black Hawk Hancock offers an embedded and embodied ethnography that situates dance within a larger Chicago landscape of segregated social practices. Delving into two Chicago dance worlds, the Lindy and Steppin', Hancock uses a combination of participant-observation and interviews to bring to the surface the racial tension that surrounds white use of black cultural forms. Focusing on new forms of appropriation in an era of multiculturalism, Hancock underscores the institutionalization of racial disparities and offers wonderful insights into the intersection of race and culture in America.

Also in

Anthropology

View All