This book explores the formation of the African-American identity through the theory of cultural trauma. The trauma in question is slavery, not as an institution or as personal experience, but as collective memory--a pervasive remembrance that grounded a people's sense of itself. Ron Eyerman offers insights into the intellectual and generational conflicts of identity-formation which have a truly universal significance, and provides a new and compelling account of the birth of African-American identity.
Author(s): Ron Eyerman
Series: Cambridge Cultural Social Studies
Edition: 1
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 316
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 6
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Introduction......Page 11
Collective memory......Page 15
The place of generation in collective memory......Page 20
The cycle of (generational) memory......Page 22
2 Re-membering and forgetting......Page 33
Popular memory and popular culture......Page 49
A new African American Negro......Page 68
A New Negro......Page 71
Slavery and popular culture......Page 85
4 The Harlem Renaissance and the heritage of slavery......Page 99
The changing conditions of community......Page 104
Harlem, mecca of the New Negro: from trauma to triumph......Page 120
Representation and memory: high culture and low......Page 125
Visualizing the New Negro......Page 133
5 Memory and representation......Page 140
Institutionalizing the progressive narrative......Page 142
Mediating race......Page 150
Black-oriented radio......Page 158
Negotiating the meaning of migration......Page 163
War: the end of Depression......Page 171
Black nationalism and the tragic narrative......Page 175
The original people......Page 178
6 Civil rights and black nationalism: the post-war generation......Page 184
Context......Page 185
Black power......Page 188
Re-framing the tragic narrative......Page 192
Secular nationalism: cultural and political......Page 200
The civil rights movement and the progressive narrative......Page 209
Representing the movement and the memory of slavery......Page 220
Popular culture......Page 225
1 Cultural trauma and collective memory......Page 233
2 Re-membering and forgetting......Page 238
3 Out of Africa: the making of a collective identity......Page 246
4 The Harlem Renaissance and the heritage of slavery......Page 256
5 Memory and representation......Page 268
6 Civil rights and black nationalism: the post-war generation......Page 287
References......Page 296
Index......Page 309
