“The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues
Historicizing the musical genre known as “Chicago blues,” I further complicate Richard Wright’s already complicated attitudes toward “the folk” and modernity. Utilizing close readings of <i>12 Million Black Voices</i>, I show how Wright’s apparent denigration of the blues as an outmoded,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/13/1/28 |
| _version_ | 1797298078626086912 |
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| author | Jeff Wimble |
| author_facet | Jeff Wimble |
| author_sort | Jeff Wimble |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Historicizing the musical genre known as “Chicago blues,” I further complicate Richard Wright’s already complicated attitudes toward “the folk” and modernity. Utilizing close readings of <i>12 Million Black Voices</i>, I show how Wright’s apparent denigration of the blues as an outmoded, pre-modern artistic form is dependent on his historical situation writing before the advent of a new electrified form of blues that developed in Chicago shortly after the book’s publication. Utilizing biographical details of the life of Muddy Waters, I show how his work as a musician in Mississippi, then in Chicago, and his development of an electrified blues style, parallels and personifies the shift from an African American perspective rooted in an agrarian, pre-modern south to an industrial, modern north documented so effectively by Wright. Furthermore, the Chicago blues musicians’ transmogrification of the rural Delta blues into an electrified, urban expression manifests the vernacular-modernist artistic conception which Wright seems to be envisioning and pointing toward in <i>12 Million Black Voices</i>. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:29:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-68fc9aad17104dd2a11eb953f5b7c8c0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-0787 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T22:29:40Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-68fc9aad17104dd2a11eb953f5b7c8c02024-02-23T15:18:57ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872024-01-011312810.3390/h13010028“The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago BluesJeff Wimble0Music Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USAHistoricizing the musical genre known as “Chicago blues,” I further complicate Richard Wright’s already complicated attitudes toward “the folk” and modernity. Utilizing close readings of <i>12 Million Black Voices</i>, I show how Wright’s apparent denigration of the blues as an outmoded, pre-modern artistic form is dependent on his historical situation writing before the advent of a new electrified form of blues that developed in Chicago shortly after the book’s publication. Utilizing biographical details of the life of Muddy Waters, I show how his work as a musician in Mississippi, then in Chicago, and his development of an electrified blues style, parallels and personifies the shift from an African American perspective rooted in an agrarian, pre-modern south to an industrial, modern north documented so effectively by Wright. Furthermore, the Chicago blues musicians’ transmogrification of the rural Delta blues into an electrified, urban expression manifests the vernacular-modernist artistic conception which Wright seems to be envisioning and pointing toward in <i>12 Million Black Voices</i>.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/13/1/28African American literatureblues music |
| spellingShingle | Jeff Wimble “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues Humanities African American literature blues music |
| title | “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues |
| title_full | “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues |
| title_fullStr | “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues |
| title_full_unstemmed | “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues |
| title_short | “The Noise of Our Living”: Richard Wright and Chicago Blues |
| title_sort | the noise of our living richard wright and chicago blues |
| topic | African American literature blues music |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/13/1/28 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeffwimble thenoiseofourlivingrichardwrightandchicagoblues |