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An American Folk Opera? Triangulating Folkness, Blackness, and Americaness in Gershwin and Heyward's Porgy and Bess

An American Folk Opera? Triangulating Folkness, Blackness, and Americaness in Gershwin and... The conscious choice of an "American Folk Opera" as the subtitle for George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's 1935 opera Porgy and Bess reveals much about the interplay of tradition, race, and national identity during the Great Depression. Although the opera's authentic "folkness" was brought into serious question by such period critics as Virgil Thomson and Hall Johnson, Porgy and Bess did generate a critical debate that propelled the triangulation of folkness, blackness, and Americaness into the national consciousness at a crucial moment when the country was struggling to define who its folk were and how folk heritage(s) could form the foundation of a common American identity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of American Folklore American Folklore Society

An American Folk Opera? Triangulating Folkness, Blackness, and Americaness in Gershwin and Heyward's Porgy and Bess

Allen, Ray.
Journal of American Folklore , Volume 117 (465) – Jul 26, 2004
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Publisher
American Folklore Society
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
ISSN
1535-1882
Publisher site
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Abstract

The conscious choice of an "American Folk Opera" as the subtitle for George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's 1935 opera Porgy and Bess reveals much about the interplay of tradition, race, and national identity during the Great Depression. Although the opera's authentic "folkness" was brought into serious question by such period critics as Virgil Thomson and Hall Johnson, Porgy and Bess did generate a critical debate that propelled the triangulation of folkness, blackness, and Americaness into the national consciousness at a crucial moment when the country was struggling to define who its folk were and how folk heritage(s) could form the foundation of a common American identity.

Journal

Journal of American Folklore – American Folklore Society

Published: Jul 26, 2004

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