Analysis Of The Book The Minstrel Show - 758 Words

Eleanor W. Traylor begins by explaining the fallacy in thinking that ragtime was the first and foremost contributor to black theatre art in America. She argues that the source of all that can be called representative American theatre is Aframerican (47). In other words, she elaborates, there were two kinds of ceremonies and narratives pervasive to black theatre before ragtime. The minstrel show is one example. The article stresses that the minstrel show was not invented by white plantation owners, but that the minstrel show was a failed attempt at satirical imitation. The real minstrel show came from the Afro American magic circle of creation (Traylor 48). In the same page, she argues that their African American Minstrel show had its roots in African tradition, specifically, the Yoruba tradition. In this tradition, the mask is wood until it becomes the mask in motion. Somehow, this mask got translated into blackface, into a tool for hiding rather than a tool for revealing. The mask used in African American minstrelsy would reveal the spirit of the mask wearer. Yoruba music would be wholly original, unusable by their white counterparts because it wasn t wholly understood. The apparatus of using the wholly spiritual and authentic to create an art that is fully American would evolve over the centuries until black theatre became what it is during contemporary times. Traylor argues that it is the only truly American theatre because it was created in America.Show MoreRelatedBlack Leadership, Politics, and Culture in Uplifting the Race by Kevin Gaines1225 Words   |  5 Pagestwentieth century. In the first part of the book, Gaines analyzes the black elite obsession with racial uplift ideology and the tensions it produced among black intellectuals. Gaines argues for the most part that during the nineteenth-century racial uplift ideology was part of a liberation theology as stated by Gaines, which stressed a group struggle for freedom and social advancement . 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