Birth of an industry
Subtitle: blackface minstrelsy and the rise of American animation
By: Nicholas Sammond
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 382
ISBN-13: 9780822358527
Subjects: Animated film industry; Animation (Cinematography); Blackface entertainers; Minstrel shows; History
Description: Nicholas Sammond describes how popular early American cartoon characters were derived from blackface minstrelsy. He charts the industrialization of animation in the early twentieth century, its representation in the cartoons themselves, and how important blackface minstrels were to that performance, standing in for the frustrations of animation workers. Cherished cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, were conceived and developed using blackface minstrelsy's visual and performative conventions: these characters are not like minstrels; they are minstrels. They play out the social, cultural, political, and racial anxieties and desires that link race to the laboring body, just as live minstrel show performers did. Carefully examining how early animation helped naturalize virulent racial formations, Sammond explores how cartoons used laughter and sentimentality to make those stereotypes seem not only less cruel but actually pleasurable. Although the visible links between cartoon characters and the minstrel stage faded long ago, Sammond shows how important those links are to thinking about animation then and now, and about how cartoons continue to help illuminate the central place of race in American cultural and social life.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-364) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: biting the invisible hand; title: Performance; title: Labor; title: Space; title: Race; title: Conclusion: the "new" blackface.