In this Book
Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line
Book
2018
Published by:
University Press of Mississippi

summary
Although many Americans think of Jackie Robinson when considering the story of segregation in baseball, a long history of tragedies and triumphs precede Robinson's momentous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From the pioneering Cuban Giants (1885-1915) to the Negro Leagues (1920-1960), black baseball was a long-standing staple of African American communities. While many of its artifacts and statistics are lost, black baseball figured vibrantly in films, novels, plays, and poems. In Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line, author Emily Ruth Rutter examines wide-ranging representations of this history by William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor, Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington, among others.
Reading representations across the literary color line, Rutter opens a propitious space for exploring black cultural pride and residual frustrations with racial hypocrisies on the one hand and the benefits and limitations of white empathy on the other. Exploring these topics is necessary to the project of enriching the archives of segregated baseball in particular and African American cultural history more generally.
Table of Contents
Cover
Half Title, Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
Contents
pp. vii-viii
Acknowledgments
pp. ix-x
Introduction: Archival Interventions: Black Baseball and Imaginative Literature
pp. 1-16
The First Wave - Shadow Archives, White Saviors, and Magical Negroes: Representations of Black Baseball in the 1970s
pp. 17-20
Chapter 1. âI Was Born Too Quickâ: Archival Contributions and Limitations in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
pp. 21-40
Chapter 2. Black Baseball Novels and White Redemption
pp. 41-66
The Second Wave - "It Was Oursâ: Black-Authored Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line
pp. 67-70
Chapter 3. Black Baseballâs Archive of Cultural Nationalist Feeling
pp. 71-92
Chapter 4. âLetâs Play Twoâ: The Affective Resonances of Black Baseball in African American Poetry
pp. 93-108
The Third Wave - Reconfigurations of the Archive in Contemporary Black Baseball Literature
pp. 109-112
Chapter 5. Crossing the Color Line in Mark Winegardnerâs The Veracruz Blues and Kevin Kingâs All the Stars Came Out That Night
pp. 113-134
Chapter 6. Educating the Next Generation: Black Baseball Childrenâs Books
pp. 135-158
Coda - An Archive of Feelings Revisited: Fences on Screen
pp. 159-168
Notes
pp. 169-174
Works Cited
pp. 175-182
Index
pp. 183-190
ISBN | 9781496817167 |
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Related ISBN(s) | 9781496817129 |
MARC Record | Download |
OCLC | 1031373873 |
Pages | 192 |
Launched on MUSE | 2018-09-10 |
Language | English |
Open Access | No |