Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan John Ainsworth
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

This book explores the work of a wide range of American photographers attracted to jazz during the period 1900–60. It includes discussions of jazz as a visual subject, its attraction to different types of photographers and offers analysis of why and how they approached the subject in the way they did. While some of these photographers are widely recognized for their work, many African American photojournalists, studio photographers, early twentieth-century émigrés, the Jewish exiles of the 1930s and vernacular snapshots are frequently overlooked. Drawing on ideas from contemporary photographic theory backed up by extensive archival research, this book allows the reader to explore and understand twentieth-century jazz photography in both an engaging and comprehensive fashion.

Affective Narratives: Harlem and the Lower East Side

2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
CATHERINE ROTTENBERG
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Jewish American ◽  
Lower East Side ◽  
East Side ◽  
American Novels ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Way

This paper begins by juxtaposing contemporary discourses on Harlem and the Lower East Side, arguing that the processes of iconization of these two neighborhoods have been very different. Whereas the iconicity of Harlem has always been shot through with ambivalence, the Lower East Side has come to signify a relatively unambivalent sacred space for US Jewry. The second part of the essay then traces the representations of Harlem and the Lower East Side back to early twentieth-century African American and Jewish American novels, claiming that critically analyzing the theme of ambivalence in these texts – and, more specifically, how ambivalence manifests itself differently within each literary tradition – is key to understanding not only why Harlem and the Lower East Side have undergone parallel but divergent processes of iconization, but also the way Jews and blacks have been positioned and have attempted to position themselves in relation to dominant white US society.

Urbanization and the End of Black Churches in the Modern World

2007 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis J. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Black Churches ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Black Religion ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
African American Religion ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Way

Historian Wallace Best argues in his Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952 (2005) that historically “we have been more accustomed to think of religion as spontaneous and supernatural.” Best maintains that we have seen religion as “something that happens—outside of human control and irrespective of social context.” He wants to challenge this conception of religion by emphasizing the active production of a new religious culture by black Americans in Chicago in the early twentieth century. The agency of lower- and working-class blacks is what Best emphasizes in his rich analysis of religion and culture in black Chicago. Although it is not clear who the “we” is in Best's analysis because he does not cite any sources on this point, I do not quite see things the way that he does. As I will demonstrate in this essay, the historiography on African American religion has not posited a static or “supernatural” conception of religion. What strikes me about the history of interpretations of African American religion is the way in which interpreters have asserted that peoples of African descent were “naturally religious,” which meant that their religion was a product of biology and nature rather than of the “supernatural.” Generally, white interpreters in the early twentieth century set the terms of the debate by arguing that blacks were naturally religious and thus unable to compete in a modern industrial world. The political and social force of such arguments has been keenly observed by black interpreters, who were eager to offer in response a more socially progressive notion of black religion in order to enlist black churches in social reform, to counter images of blacks as inhibited by nature or biology from contributing to the cultural vitality of the nation, and to insist that black religion changed in response to social circumstances (and hence the common claim in the 1940s that it was very much a product, if not an epiphenomenon, of their economic and political condition).

Pleasure in the News

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim T. Gallon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Press ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Wide Range

Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press is an examination of the coverage of sexuality in the Black Press between 1925 and 1940, otherwise known as the interwar period in the United States. In the book, Kim Gallon argues that the Black Press made sexuality a major topic of news to appease African American readers’ imagined desires for sexual coverage. In so doing, Gallon argues that Black Press coverage produced a number of black sexual public spheres that offered early-twentieth-century African Americans opportunities to debate and discuss particular sexual topics. In their simplest form, black sexual public spheres were discursive arenas in which readers debated and discussed sexual matters. They also served as mechanisms for readers to critique and sound off on a wide range of issues, including respectability, interracial marriage, divorce, the sexualization of women’s bodies, and homosexuality within early-twentieth-century black communities. Overall, Pleasure in the News provides an expanded understanding of the ways readers interacted with the Black Press and representations of sexuality.

Breeding Better Babies in the Eugenic Garden City: ‘Municipal Darwinism’ and the (Anti)Cosmopolitan Utopia in the early Twentieth Century

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Currell
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Garden City ◽  
New Town ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
National Body ◽  
Practical Level ◽  
The Way

Showing how ‘modernist cosmopolitanism’ coexisted with an anti-cosmopolitan municipal control this essay looks at the way utopian ideals about breeding better humans entered into new town and city planning in the early twentieth century. An experiment in eugenic garden city planning which took place in Strasbourg, France, in the 1920s provided a model for modern planning that was keenly observed by the international eugenics movement as well as city planners. The comparative approach taken in this essay shows that while core beliefs about degeneration and the importance of eugenics to improve the national ‘body’ were often transnational and cosmopolitan, attempts to implement eugenic beliefs on a practical level were shaped by national and regional circumstances that were on many levels anti-cosmopolitan. As a way of assuaging the tensions between the local and the global, as well as the traditional with the modern, this unique and now forgotten experiment in eugenic city planning aimed to show that both preservation and progress could succeed at the same time.

Rituals and Records: the Films of the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke McKernan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Slow Motion ◽  
Sports History ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Olympic Sport ◽  
Film Record ◽  
Landmark Study ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Olympic Games

The title of Allen Guttmann's landmark study of sports history,From Ritual to Record, captures the way cinematic treatments of the Olympic Games, Europe's most resonant sporting invention, developed in the early twentieth century. Projected film and the modern Olympic Games began in the same year, 1896, and the way the two phenomena have grown together demonstrates a progression from formality and ritual to an ever-increasing emphasis on individual, nation and achievement. This transition from ritual to record is demonstrated by two Olympic films from the European Games of Paris 1924 and Amsterdam 1928,Les Jeux Olympiques Paris 1924andDe Olympische Spelen. These cinematic records are not only documentary records of the events they portray, but are an important reminder that modern sports are witnessed by most not as stadium spectators but as viewers – in the case of the 1924 and 1928 films, as members of a cinema audience. The film record is essential to our understanding of the popularisation of modern sports, while through their contrary impulses to document and to idealise (particularly through the use of slow-motion photography), the two films demonstrate what is meaningful about Olympic sport.

Before Midnight

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Jawaharlal Nehru

This chapter examines ideas about war, peace, and international relations over the century preceding independence, of which there were many more and in greater depth than widely supposed. It outlines how and why Indians first began to articulate views on the subject, and subsequently analyses these ideas. It proposes that, contrary to the opinion of some scholars, Indians thought carefully about the nature of international relations. Most importantly, it emphasizes the plurality of views on the subject, and explains how and why proponents of pragmatism in foreign relations came to be sidelined in the period immediately preceding independence. Several of the personalities developing notions of what a foreign policy for India should involve as of the early twentieth century, including India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, became important actors in formulating and implementing foreign policy post-independence.

scholarly journals Ezra Pound's Poetry between Victorianism and Modernism: A Historical-Biographical Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 826-832
Author(s):  
Kizhan Salar Abdulqadr ◽  
Roz Jamal Omer ◽  
Ranjdar Hama Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ezra Pound ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
English Verse ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Academic Discussion ◽  
Biographical Analysis

This paper examines the short poems of Ezra Pound, a group of works that have long been the subject of academic discussion in the field of literary analysis. Although Ezra Pound is typically considered a Modernist poet, some clear elements of Victorianism can be discerned within his revolutionary forms of poetry. The paper will offer a historical and biographical background to Pound's work before moving on to an analysis and discussion of the poet's short poems. While previous studies of Ezra Pound's poetry have adopted various critical approaches, we believe that this is the first study that compares the influence of Modernism and Victorianism on the work of this important figure in English verse of the early twentieth century.

scholarly journals Representing the War. Early Twentieth Century Maps and Models in the Fonds of the Italian War History Museum in Rovereto

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Elena Dai Prà ◽  
Valentina De Santi ◽  
Giannantonio Scaglione
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Three Dimensional Models ◽  
The University ◽  
First World

Abstract. The representation of the areas in which some of the most significant events of the First World War took place has produced a wide range of materials, such as cartography, aerial and terrestrial photos, textual descriptions and field surveys. In addition, war events were also represented through three-dimensional models. Topographic maps and models constitute composite figurations, which are rich in informative data useful for the preservation of the memory of places and for increasing the knowledge of cultural heritage. Hence, these sources need to be studied, described, interpreted and used for future enhancement. The focus of this paper are archival materials from the collections kept at the Italian War History Museum of Rovereto (Museo Storico Italiano della Guerra), in the Trentino-Alto Adige region. Firstly, we will investigate the cartographic fond in order to assess the composition and origin of its materials. Secondly, we will present the Museum’s collection of Early-Twentieth Century models. Such precious heritage is not yet part of an exhibition, and is kept in the Museum’s warehouses. The paper constitutes the occasion to present the initial results of a still ongoing project by the Geo-Cartographic Centre for Study and Documentation (GeCo) of the University of Trento on the study and analysis of two archival complexes preserved in the abovementioned Museum. In particular, the paper focuses on the heuristic value of such representational devices, which enable an analysis of the different methods and languages through which space is planned and designed, emphasizing the complementarity between different types of visualization.

The Meaning[s] of "Without": An Exploration of Liszt's Bagatelle ohne Tonart

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Berry
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Musical Thought ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
Piano Composition ◽  
Musical Evolution ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
The Way

In this essay, I explore historical and theoretical issues germane to an understanding of an 1885 piano composition with an intriguing title: LisztÕs Bagatelle ohne Tonart--a bagatelle "without tonality" or "without a key." After briefly describing the workÕs history and musical associations with other compositions by Liszt, I survey two present-day approaches that reveal ways in which the work defies tonality: octatonic interpretations via set-class examinations, and Schenker-influenced prolongational models. I then turn to focus instead on how the Bagatelle fit within the framework of nineteenth-century musical thought; how its processes were supported by contemporaneously evolving theories of chromaticism. Partly through an analysis based on the practice of Gottfried Weber (1779-1839), I demonstrate that the Bagatelle is not a piece "without tonality" as much as it is one "without the fulfillment of the tonic." It maintains harmonic tension by avoiding anticipated resolutions, as well as by preserving a sense of ambiguity as to what the actual "missing" key is. Next, I consider why Liszt was prompted to write a piece in such a manner. We know that he was a proponent of musical progress--of Zukunftsmusik ("music of the future")--but for this fact to be relevant we must confirm, first, that Liszt had definite ideas about a Zukunftsharmoniesystem; and second, that such a system is reflected in the processes exhibited by the Bagatelle. I argue that the BagatelleÕs traits are indeed in accordance with theoretical views about musicÕs future direction, to which Liszt subscribed. Relevant theories of Karl Friedrich Weitzmann (1808-80) and Franois-Joseph FŽtis (1784-1871) are assessed. Lastly, in a "Schoenbergian epilogue" I explore connections between LisztÕs operations and SchoenbergÕs ideas, addressing historical associations that conjoin their views of composing "ohne Tonart."I conclude that the 1885 BagatelleÕs attenuation of tonality was part of a tradition that extended from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century--one that stretched from Liszt and his contemporaries through Schoenberg and his pupils and beyond, embracing along the way the theoretical prescriptions of Weitzmann, FŽtis, and Schoenberg himself. The various threads of theory and analysis explored in this article contribute to an understanding of the same strand of musical evolution: the increasing circumvention of tonality to the point that a piece could be written "ohne Tonart."

The Institution of Meter

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith Martin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Study ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Gerard Manley Hopkins ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Primary Measure ◽  
Successes And Failures ◽  
The Way

This chapter begins with a discussion of metrical mastery, outlining the way that Robert Bridges's intervention in his best-selling treatise Milton's Prosody expanded and popularized the theories that he and Gerard Manley Hopkins discussed together. It shows how Bridges and his influential competitor, George Saintsbury, were jostling for position during the height of the prosody wars between 1900 and 1910, and how their successes and failures characterize much of our contemporary thinking about early twentieth-century prosody. Author of the three-volume History of English Prosody (1906–10), Saintsbury was a prime mover in both the foundation of English literary study and the institutionalization of the “foot” as the primary measure of English poetry. Infused with Edwardian-era military rhetoric, Sainstbury's foot marched to a particularly English rhythm, which he traced through the ages with wit and martial vigor.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document