{"id":55449,"date":"2017-12-25T20:23:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T20:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=55449"},"modified":"2017-12-26T02:24:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T02:24:20","slug":"twisting-herself-into-all-shapes-blackface-minstrelsy-and-comic-performance-in-harriet-wilsons-our-nig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=55449","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Twisting herself into all shapes\u2019: blackface minstrelsy and comic performance in Harriet Wilson\u2019s Our Nig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Twisting herself into all shapes\u2019: blackface minstrelsy and comic performance in Harriet Wilson\u2019s <\/strong><\/em>Our Nig<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

European Journal of American Studies<\/a>
\n9-1 | 2014 : Spring 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Boyle<\/strong><\/a>, Lecturer
\nDepartment of English
\nUniversity of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nFigure 1: Caroline Fox Howard as \u2018Topsy\u2019 in Uncle Tom’s Cabin<\/em><\/a>, c. 1854.<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This article argues that the practical jokes running throughout Wilson\u2019s<\/a> novel <\/em>Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black<\/a> (1859) are evidence of a deliberate and sophisticated comic strategy that exploits the spectacular body\u2019s potential for subversive performance and works against the alienating conditions of social and political marginalisation experienced by African Americans in the antebellum period. Initially utilising the crude humour of minstrelsy<\/a>, Wilson deliberately capitalised on her readers\u2019 laughter in order to defamiliarise the \u2018spectacle\u2019 of blackness in both popular performance culture and indentured servitude. Using movement, costume and material props, Wilson imagines new ways to present her protagonist\u2019s body through the minstrel stereotypes of Topsy, Jim Crow, Zip Coon and Jasper Jack. Wilson then turns the joke on her white readers, ultimately demonstrating that whiteness, like blackness, is a performative identity. Taken as a whole, Wilson\u2019s comic strategy, with its \u2018embodied insurgency\u2019, aligns her with the period\u2019s most politically racial African American performers.<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea for this article sprang from a seemingly simple question: why are there so many practical jokes played in Harriet Wilson\u2019s<\/a> novel, Our Nig<\/em><\/a> (1859)? Although the novel\u2014generally recognised as the first to be published in the United States<\/a> by an African American\u2014centres on the tragic story of a young, mulatto<\/a> indentured servant mistreated by her Northern mistress, the narrative consistently undermines its mid-nineteenth century sentimental framework by including short comic sketches performed by the supposedly tragic protagonist, who nevertheless \u2018was ever at some sly prank\u2019, and would often \u2018venture far beyond propriety\u2019 in entertaining herself and those around her (Wilson 38). Are these comic interruptions evidence of narrative inconsistency? Or, is Wilson\u2019s persistent inclusion of the figure of the black comic performer in fact a shrewd exploration of a powerfully resonant theatrical tradition and its manifold racial discourses? And what does it mean for a female African American author writing at the crux of the \u2018slavery question\u2019 in the run-up to the Civil War<\/a>\u2014and near the peak of blackface minstrel popularity\u2014to delve into the complex social meanings behind popular comic performances of blackness? Why these pranks, in this manner, at this time?…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article argues that the practical jokes running throughout Wilson\u2019s novel Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859) are evidence of a deliberate and sophisticated comic strategy that exploits the spectacular body\u2019s potential for subversive performance and works against the alienating conditions of social and political marginalisation experienced by African Americans in the antebellum period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1196,8,6940,20],"tags":[27879,10971,949,944],"class_list":["post-55449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-slavery","category-usa","tag-elizabeth-boyle","tag-european-journal-of-american-studies","tag-harriet-e-wilson","tag-harriet-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55464,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55449\/revisions\/55464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}