Street scenes : staging the self in immigrant New York, 1880-1924 / Esther Romeyn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Romeyn, Esther.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City and town life--New York (State)--New York--History.

City and town life.

Ethnicity--New York (State)--New York--History.

Ethnicity.

Immigrants--New York (State)--New York--Intellectual life.

Immigrants.

Immigrants--New York (State)--New York--Social conditions.

Minorities--New York (State)--New York--Intellectual life.

Minorities.

Minorities--New York (State)--New York--Social conditions.

Performing arts--Social aspects--New York (State)--New York--History.

Performing arts.

Self--New York (State)--New York--History.

Self.

New York (N.Y.)--Ethnic relations.

New York (N.Y.).

New York (N.Y.)--Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (308 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The turn of the twentieth century in New York City was characterized by radical transformation as the advent of consumer capitalism confronted established social hierarchies, culture, and conceptions of selfhood. The popular stage existed in a symbiotic relationship with the city and uniquely captured the contested terms of immigrant identity of the time. Street Scenes focuses on the intersection of modern city life and stage performance. From street life and slumming to vaudeville and early cinema, to Yiddish theater and blackface comedy, Esther Romeyn discloses racial comedy, passing, and ma

Contents:

pt. 1. The city as theater : performativity and urban space

The epistemology of the city

Detecting, acting, and the hierarchy of the social body

Crossing the Bowery : female slumming and the theater of urban space

Eros and Americanization : the rise of David Levinsky, or the etiquette of race and sex

pt. 2. Stages of identity : performing ethnic subjects

Juggling identities : the case of an Italian American clown

My other/my self : impersonation and the rehearsal of otherness

The truth of racial signs : civilizing the Jewish comic

Blackface, Jewface, whiteface : racial impersonation revisited.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-261) and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-6626-1

OCLC:

318218376