Consuming stories : Kara Walker and the imagining of American race / Rebecca Peabody.

Author
Peabody, Rebecca [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016]
  • ©2016
Description
208 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

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Marquand Library - Remote Storage: Marquand Use OnlyN6537.W239 P43 2016 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    "Rebecca Peabody uses the work of contemporary American artist Kara Walker to investigate a range of popular storytelling traditions with roots in the nineteenth century and ramifications in the present. Focusing on a few key pieces that range from a wall-size installation to a reworked photocopy in an artist's book, and from a theater curtain to a monumental sculpture, Peabody explores a significant yet neglected aspect of Walker's production: her commitment to exploring narrative depictions of race, gender, power, and desire. Consuming Stories considers Walker's sustained visual engagement with literary genres such as the romance novel, neo-slave narrative, and children's fairy tales, and internationally-known stories including Roots, Beloved, and Uncle Tom's Cabin. Walker's interruption of these familiar works, along with her generative use of the familiar in unexpected and destabilizing ways, reveals the extent to which genre-based narrative conventions depend on specific representations of race--especially as it is aligned with power, and desire. Breaking these implicit rules makes them visible - and, in turn, highlights viewers' reliance on them for narrative legibility. As this study reveals, Walker's engagement with narrative continues beyond her early silhouette work as she moves into media such as film, video, and sculpture--and when she works beyond the United States, using her tools and strategies to unsettle cultural histories abroad. Ultimately, Consuming Stories shifts the critical conversation around Walker away from the visual legacy of historical racism, and towards the present-day role of the entertainment industry--and its consumers--in processes of racialization."--Provided by publisher.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-194) and index.
    Contents
    • Introduction : Kara Walker, Storyteller
    • The end of Uncle Tom
    • The pop of racial violence
    • American romance in black and white
    • The international appeal of race
    • Storytelling in film and video
    • Conclusion.
    ISBN
    • 9780520288928 ((cloth ; : alkaline. paper))
    • 0520288920 ((cloth ; : alkaline. paper))
    • 9780520383333 ((paperback ; : alkaline. paper))
    • 0520383338 ((paperback ; : alkaline. paper))
    LCCN
    2016020696
    OCLC
    945950275
    Other standard number
    • 40026661042
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