Seems Like Murder Here
eBook - PDF

Seems Like Murder Here

Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Seems Like Murder Here

Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition

About this book

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 Neale Hurston, Seems Like Murder Here will transform our understanding of the blues and its enduring power.

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Yes, you can access Seems Like Murder Here by Adam Gussow in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Music. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. CONTENTS
  2. Preface
  3. Introduction
  4. 1. “I’m Tore Down:” Lynching and the Birth of a Blues Tradition
  5. 2. “Make My Getaway:” Southern Violence and Blues Entrepreneurship in W. C. Handy’s Father of the Blues
  6. 3. Dis(Re)memberment Blues: narratives of abjection and redress
  7. 4. “Shoot Myself a Cop:” Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues” as Social Text
  8. 5. Guns, Knives, and Buckets of Blood: The Predicament of Blues Culture
  9. 6. “The Blade Already Crying in My Flesh:” Zora Neale Hurston’s Blues Narratives
  10. Epilogue
  11. Acknowledgments
  12. Notes
  13. Bibliography
  14. Index