Real Folks

Race and Genre in the Great Depression

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, African-American Studies, Popular Culture
Cover of the book Real Folks by Sonnet Retman, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sonnet Retman ISBN: 9780822393894
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: September 19, 2011
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Sonnet Retman
ISBN: 9780822393894
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: September 19, 2011
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

During the Great Depression, people from across the political spectrum sought to ground American identity in the rural know-how of “the folk.” At the same time, certain writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals combined documentary and satire into a hybrid genre that revealed the folk as an anxious product of corporate capitalism, rather than an antidote to commercial culture. In Real Folks, Sonnet Retman analyzes the invention of the folk as figures of authenticity in the political culture of the 1930s, as well as the critiques that emerged in response. Diverse artists and intellectuals—including the novelists George Schuyler and Nathanael West, the filmmaker Preston Sturges, and the anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston—illuminated the fabrication and exploitation of folk authenticity in New Deal and commercial narratives. They skewered the racist populisms that prevented interracial working-class solidarity, prophesized the patriotic function of the folk for the nation-state in crisis, and made their readers and viewers feel self-conscious about the desire for authenticity. By illuminating the subversive satirical energy of the 1930s, Retman identifies a rich cultural tradition overshadowed until now by the scholarly focus on Depression-era social realism.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

During the Great Depression, people from across the political spectrum sought to ground American identity in the rural know-how of “the folk.” At the same time, certain writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals combined documentary and satire into a hybrid genre that revealed the folk as an anxious product of corporate capitalism, rather than an antidote to commercial culture. In Real Folks, Sonnet Retman analyzes the invention of the folk as figures of authenticity in the political culture of the 1930s, as well as the critiques that emerged in response. Diverse artists and intellectuals—including the novelists George Schuyler and Nathanael West, the filmmaker Preston Sturges, and the anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston—illuminated the fabrication and exploitation of folk authenticity in New Deal and commercial narratives. They skewered the racist populisms that prevented interracial working-class solidarity, prophesized the patriotic function of the folk for the nation-state in crisis, and made their readers and viewers feel self-conscious about the desire for authenticity. By illuminating the subversive satirical energy of the 1930s, Retman identifies a rich cultural tradition overshadowed until now by the scholarly focus on Depression-era social realism.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Queering the Color Line by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book The Discovery and Conquest of Peru by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Present Tense by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book The Spectacular City by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Organizing Empire by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book National History and the World of Nations by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Making Men by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Making Samba by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Philosophical Imagination and Cultural Memory by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book World Politics and International Law by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Insult and the Making of the Gay Self by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Undoing Monogamy by Sonnet Retman
Cover of the book Imagine Otherwise by Sonnet Retman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy