Images of The Apocalypse in African American Blues and Spirituals
Destruction in this Land
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. The Spiritual Dimension of the Emergent Blues
- Political and Social Conditions of Black Americans in the South after the Emancipation Proclamation and the Rise of Blues
- Spirituals and the Blues: African Antecedents and New World Realities
- Religion and the Blues
- Chapter 2. Visions of the Apocalypse and Cataclysmic Events in Religious Disaster Songs and the Blues
- The Power of Apocalyptic Rhetoric and the Rise of Apocalyptic Thinking in the Blues
- Cataclysmic Events and Apocalyptic Imagery in Religious Disaster Songs
- Natural Calamities and Apocalyptic Themes in Blues Lyrics Recorded by Women in the 1920s and 1930s
- Natural Disasters and Apocalyptic Imagery in Blues Lyrics Recorded by Men in the 1920s and 1930s
- Chapter 3. The Approaching Apocalypse: The Last Judgement and The Book of Revelation in Spirituals and Blues Recorded by Blues Musicians
- Signs of the Forthcoming Apocalypse and Last Judgement in Spirituals Performed by Bluesmen
- Images of the Apocalypse and Last Judgement in Selected Blues Lyrics
- Symbolism from the Book of Revelation in Blind Willie Johnson’s “John the Revelator,” Son House’s “John the Revelator” and Blind Gary Davis’s “I’m Gonna Meet You at the Station”
- Chapter 4. Images of Death and Heaven in Spirituals and Blues Recorded by Blues Musicians
- Images of Death in Spirituals
- Visions of Death in Blues Lyrics
- Images of Heaven and the Afterlife in Spirituals Recorded by Bluesmen
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
Małgorzata Ziółek- Sowińska
Images of The Apocalypse in African American Blues and Spirituals
Destruction in this Land
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ziołek-Sowinska, Małgorzata, author.
Title: Images of the apocalypse in African American blues and spirituals : destruction in this land / Ziołek-Sowinska, Małgorzata.
Description: New York ; Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2017. | Series: New Americanists in Poland, ISSN 2191-2254 ; vol. 7 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016054386 | ISBN 9783631681312
Subjects: LCSH: Blues (Music)—Religious aspects—United States—History—19th century. | Blues (Music)—Religious aspects—United States—History—20th century.
| Spirituals (Songs)—United States—19th century—History and criticism. | Spirituals (Songs)—United States—20th century—History and criticism. | African Americans—Music—History and criticism. | Apocalypse in music. | Death in music.
Classification: LCC ML3921.8.B68 Z56 2017 | DDC 781.643089/96073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054386
This publication was financially supported by the University of Warsaw.
ISSN 2191-2254
ISBN 978-3-631-68131-2 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-07272-3 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-70776-0 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-70777-7 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-07272-3
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2017
All rights reserved.
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About the author
Małgorzata Ziółek-Sowinska graduated from the Institute of Art, Music Department at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin; the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw, and from the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw. She earned her Ph.D. degree from the Modern Languages Department, University of Warsaw. She teaches at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw.
About the book
This book explores the recurrence of Apocalyptic motifs and imagery in blues and spirituals recorded by blues musicians. It looks at the ways in which Black Americans portray Apocalypse ideas about the Last Judgement from the Book of Revelation. It also focuses on how literary themes in spirituals and blues depict the destruction of the world, death, Christian judgement, heaven and catastrophic events in personal lives of African Americans that result in loss. Selected blues lyrics and texts of spirituals show the persistence of these themes.The book was written with a broad potential audience in mind especially among those interested in religion, eschatology, spirituals, blues and African American studies.
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
This book has been made possible with the collaborative effort and help of many people who supported me during my work on this project. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to those who have enabled me to complete this book.
A very special thanks must go to Cheryl Adams—the librarian whom I met when I was conducting research at the Library of Congress in Washington D. C and thanks to whom I was able to collect books, scholarly articles and other materials that have proved necessary for this book. I wish to express my deep gratitude to Cheryl Adams as it is my belief that without her help with collecting all the materials, I would not have been able to discuss the topic of my book with such detail and insight.
Details
- Pages
- 136
- Publication Year
- 2017
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783631707760
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9783631707777
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783653072723
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9783631681312
- DOI
- 10.3726/978-3-653-07272-3
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2017 (March)
- Keywords
- Apocalyptic Tropes Blues and Spirituals Catastrophic Events Christian Judgement Death Heaven
- Published
- Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. 136 pp.
- Product Safety
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