John Brack's Books

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture

By: William John Mahar

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Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture

By: William John Mahar

The songs, dances, jokes, parodies, spoofs, and skits of blackface groups such as the Virginia Minstrels and Buckley's Serenaders became wildly popular in antebellum America. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask not only explores the racist practices of these entertainers but considers their performances as troubled representations of ethnicity, class, gender, and culture in the nineteenth century. William J. Mahar's unprecedented archival study of playbills, newspapers, sketches, monologues, and music engages new sources previously not considered in twentieth-century scholarship. More than any other study of its kind, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask investigates the relationships between blackface comedy and other Western genres and traditions; between the music of minstrel shows and its European sources; and between "popular" and "elite" constructions of culture. By locating minstrel performances within their complex sites of production, Mahar offers a significant reassessment of the historiography of the field. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask promises to redefine the study of blackface minstrelsy, charting new directions for future inquiries by scholars in American studies, popular culture, and musicology.

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Page Count

476

Publisher

University of Illinois Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0252066960

ISBN 13

9780252066962

Tragic Drama and Modern Society

By: John Orr

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Tragic Drama and Modern Society

By: John Orr

A study that examines the relationship between tragic drama of the late 19th and 20th centuries and present-day society. The author's theories are presented with excerpts from relevant plays, such as "Look Back in Anger", "The Glass Menagerie", "The Iceman Cometh" and "Hedda Gabler".

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1349198293

ISBN 13

9781349198290

The Death's Head Chess Club

A Novel

By: John Donoghue

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The Death's Head Chess Club

A Novel

By: John Donoghue

A novel of the improbable friendship that arises between a Nazi officer and a Jewish chessplayer in Auschwitz SS Obersturmfuhrer Paul Meissner arrives in Auschwitz from the Russian front wounded and fit only for administrative duty. His most pressing task is to improve camp morale and he establishes a chess club, and allows officers and enlisted men to gamble on the games. Soon Meissner learns that chess is also played among the prisoners, and there are rumors of an unbeatable Jew known as "the Watchmaker." Meissner's superiors begin to demand that he demonstrate German superiority by pitting this undefeated Jew against the best Nazi players. Meissner finds Emil Clément, the Watchmaker, and a curious relationship arises between them. As more and more games are played, the stakes rise, and the two men find their fates deeply entwined. Twenty years later, the two meet again in Amsterdam—Meissner has become a bishop, and Emil is playing in an international chess tournament. Having lost his family in the horrors of the death camps, Emil wants nothing to do with the ex-Nazi officer despite their history, but Meissner is persistent. "What I hope," he tells Emil, "is that I can help you to understand that the power of forgiveness will bring healing." As both men search for a modicum of peace, they recall a gripping tale of survival and trust. A suspenseful meditation on understanding and guilt, John Donoghue's The Death's Head Chess Club is a bold debut and a rich portrait of a surprising friendship.

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Page Count

352

Publisher

Macmillan + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

0374713979

ISBN 13

9780374713973

Book's by John Brack

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Behind the Burnt Cork Mask

Tragic Drama and Modern Society

Tragic Drama and Modern Society

The Death's Head Chess Club

The Death's Head Chess Club

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