Images of The Apocalypse in African American Blues and Spirituals

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

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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.

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Acknowledgments

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.