The Problem of Amusement

191 Pages·2016·0.88 MB·English

‘The Problem of Amusement’: Trouble in the New Negro Narrative

Mariel S. Rodney

Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
2016

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Copyright 2016
Mariel Rodney
All rights reserved

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ABSTRACT
‘Minstrel Trouble’
Mariel Rodney

This dissertation examines black writers' appropriations of blackface minstrelsy as central
to the construction of a New Negro image in the early twentieth century U.S. Examining the
work of artists who were both fiction writers and pioneers of the black stage, I argue that
blackface, along with other popular, late-nineteenth century performance traditions like the
cakewalk and ragtime, plays a surprising and paradoxical role in the self-consciously “new”
narratives that come to characterize black cultural production in the first decades of the twentieth
century. Rather than rejecting minstrelsy as antithetical to the New Negro project of forging
black modernity, the novelists and playwrights I consider in this study—Zora Neale Hurston,
Paul Laurence Dunbar, and James Weldon Johnson—adapted blackface and other popular
performance traditions in order to experiment with narrative and dramatic form. In addition to
rethinking the relationship between print and performance as modes of refashioning blackness,
my project also charts an alternative genealogy of black cultural production that emphasizes the
New Negro Movement as a cultural formation that precedes the Harlem Renaissance and
anticipates its concerns.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ii

Dedication iv

Introduction:
The Afterlives of Minstrelsy 1

Chapter One
Troublin’ Folk: Re-Assessing Hurston’s Color Struck 20

Chapter Two
Low Lives: Reading the Blackface Sign in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods
64

Chapter Three
James Weldon Johnson and the Black Joke(r) 110

Conclusion
The Return of “The New Black” 169

Bibliography 172

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Acknowledgements

To find someone who will attentively listen to and read your work, I have learned, is a gift
beyond measure. To that point, there are number of people who have given me so many gifts
along this journey. To my dissertation committee and external readers, I extend my deepest
gratitude for their endless hours of listening, reading, and advising. To each of you: Brent
Edwards, Daphne Brooks, Saidiya Hartman, Monica Miller and Robert O’Meally, I am forever
grateful. I would be remiss if I did not extend a special thanks to my dissertation advisor, Brent
Edwards whose patience and thoughtful advice is beyond value. Daphne Brooks has been a force
of sheer energy and inspiration along this journey. When I thought that I could go no further, she
gently and firmly told me “yes you can.” I continue to draw on her words for strength.
Along this journey, I have cherished the love, affection, and support of faculty,
adminstrators, and students from across Columbia University, without whom this project would
not have come to fruition. My colleagues, friends, and mentors in IRAAS allowed me to thrive
and develop in an intellectual home away from home. Sharon Harris and Farah Jasmine Griffin
have been beacons of light since the first day I walked into Schermerhorn Extension. The
Columbia University Black Writers Group founded by Matthew Morrison and Mellon Writing
Retreats founded by Marti Newland and Monica Huerta were spaces in which the magic of
friendship, community, and productivity nurtured this project at crucial stages. The African
Americanist Colloquium also made the unbearable parts of this process, bearable. To those
groups and the brilliant members who participated, I thank you. To my dear friends of this year’s
graduating cohort Nijah Cunningham and Jarvis McInnis, I am honored to walk beside you.
Your presence and generosity has given me far more than you will ever know.
To the wonderful women of Barnard College, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program,
and Scholar & Feminist Online thank you for sharing your invigorating intelligence and spirit with
me.
When, as an undergraduate, I first decided to pursue Literature, I had no idea that the
path through the academy could be so difficult and so enriching. I am forever indebted to the
sharp wit and wisdom of Wayne Moreland and Duncan Faherty who proudly took me under
their wing and have not let me fall since. My earliest years of teaching took place at LaGuardia
Community College, CUNY under the supervision of Joseph Evering at the Reading Lab. For
nearly a decade it was a home for me and I am indebted to my students and colleagues who let
me find myself through teaching and giving back to others. My entire foundation as a scholar
and a teacher has grown from those years of working with the aforementioned people.
During my most difficult time in the completion of this project, my family and my friends
graciously supported my endeavors. I dedicate the work here to my parents. Any of my successes
belong to them and I strive always to honor their sacrifices. To my sister and my two brothers
who possess an unwavering belief in me, this too, is for you. To my grandparents, those living
and resting in power, you have provided me the source of life itself. I continue to write through
and for you.
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I owe my biggest debt to my best friend and life partner whose sheer will and love have moved
mountains for me to be my best self. Thank you for showing me the infinite beauty in the
struggle.

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For my family, those living and departed

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Introduction
The Afterlives of Minstrelsy

An ornate cover design of gold letters graces the cover of A New Negro for A New Century.
Booker T. Washington’s stoic face offers a solitary headshot framed by two American flags
acutely placed on either side of him. The cover signals a subtle yet definite message about the
nationalism of the neatly bound volume. The introduction to the volume announces the
following claims:
This book has been rightly named ‘A NEW NEGRO FOR A NEW CENTURY.’ The
Negro of today is in every phase of life far advanced over the Negro of 30 years ago. In
the following pages the progressive life of the Afro-American people has been written in
the light of achievements that will be surprising to people who are ignorant of the
enlarging life of this remarkable people.1
Perhaps in accompaniment to the ambitious design of the cover, A New Negro for a New Century
makes clear recourse to a prosperous and thriving portrait that differentiates itself historically
from the era just before it. This difference is marked through time (“far advanced over the Negro
of 30 years ago) and language (“the progressive life”, “the enlarging life”). Published in 1900 and
edited by Booker T. Washington, Fannie Barrier Williams, and N.B. Wood, the collection of
essays lauded the accomplishments of soldiers, women, teachers and intellectuals by positing a
history that attests to the “achievements” of black men and women in a heroic light:

1 Booker T. Washington, Fannie Barrier Williams, and N.B. Wood eds. A New Negro for a New Century: An
Accurate and Up-to-date Record of the Upward Struggles of the New Race (1900).
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