Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues Tradition
Adam Gussow
Abstract
Winner of the 2004 C. Hugh Holman Award from the Society for the Study of Southern Literature, this book offers a new account of the blues tradition. Far from mere laments about lost loves and hard times, the blues emerge in this study as vital responses to spectacle lynchings and the violent realities of African American life in the Jim Crow South. With interpretations of both classic songs and literary works, from the autobiographies of W. C. Handy, David Honeyboy Edwards, and B. B. King to the poetry of Langston Hughes and the novels of Zora Neale Hurston, the book will transform the unders ... More
Keywords: blues, lynchings, African American life, Jim Crow South, W. C. Handy, David Honeyboy Edwards, B. B. King, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, classic songs
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2002 | Print ISBN-13: 9780226310978 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: February 2013 | DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226311005.001.0001 |
