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Chapter 2: Cultures of Talk: Diplomacy, Nation, and Race in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
- University of Iowa Press
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65 was a precursor to Johnson’s sound-based experimentation in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. This early piece demonstrates more clearly the emerging aesthetic—based on black expressive practices at the margins of the nation—that Johnson’s novel initiates, developed through his subsequent writings and their referencing of this first book-length, nationally distributed work. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man values linguistic heterogeneity: not perfect translation , but the inflection of one culture with another’s, transformative encounters of speech and sound that, while based on national identity, encourage transnationalism through the learning of languages, cultural travel, and broader dialogue and exposure.1 Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia—varied and conflicting discourses shaping a field of linguistic production, whether it is a single literary work with multiple voices or the uses of American language by its many practitioners— provides an opportunity to read Johnson’s novel through its many evocations of language and sound, from Spanish to American English, in the cigar factory and the pool hall.2 The Evolution of Rag-Time initiated this practice of articulating a heterogeneous modern black identity through multiple discourses and locations. In 1903 Cole and Johnson Brothers composed and copyrighted The Evolution of Rag-Time: A Musical Suite, described by ethnomusicolo2 Cultures of talk diplomacy, nation, and race in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man Obviously, an Afro-American spokesperson who wished to engage in a masterful and empowering play within the minstrel spirit house needed the uncanny ability to manipulate bizarre phonic legacies. For he or she had the task of transforming the mask and its sounds into negotiable discursive currency. In effect, the task was the production of a manual of black speaking, a book of speaking back and black. —Houston Baker Jr., Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance The much-neglected work The Evolution of Rag-Time 66 c h a P t e r t W O gist Edward A. Berlin as “a tripartite effort of popular theater music, cultural anthropology, and artistic development of vernacular materials ” and “a clear response to cultural and artistic needs customarily expressed separately but here brought together in a unified work.”3 In this work, Cole and Johnson Brothers presented a thematic chronology of interwoven compositions from “Voice of the Savage. (Zulu Dance)” to “Sounds of the Times. Lindy.” James W. Johnson wrote “introductory poems” and authored the lyrics to five of the six songs, one in collaboration with Bob Cole; Rosamond wrote four of the six songs, one in collaboration with Bob Cole.The suite was produced by Klaw and Erlanger in a lavish production as part of Mother Goose. The New York Times reviewed the production, with special praise reserved for the suite by Cole and Johnson Brothers: it “presented several pleasing novelties.The first is a singing and dancing specialty arrangement by Cole and Johnson and designed to represent the ‘Evolution of Ragtime.’ It served to introduce several picturesquely costumed groups, and ended with a dance led by a dozen or more girls garbed in silk gowns of brown and gold, in which the limits of extravagance seemed to have been reached.”4 Berlin describes the suite as “more than a mere grouping of popular songs. . . . [I]t contains references to earlier styles and period pieces that its public could be expected to recognize.”5 The suite’s final song, “Sounds of the Times. Lindy,” “was the high point of the theatrical production, presented with the most lavish costumes and the grand cakewalk finale” and “was also the musical climax ,” since “the final song is built on motives introduced in the preceding songs and brings these motives to fullest fruition.”6 Moreover, this final song had a compelling, atypical structure: “After reprises of verse and chorus, the formal extensions begin, first with a variant of the chorus, now in a new key and with a habanera-like accompaniment . . . . This accompaniment is retained for a 16-measure modulatory ‘development’ of the chorus . . . leading finally to a ‘recapitulation’ of the original chorus, in the original key, and an 8-measure coda.”7 As Berlin notes, the use of “a Hispanic rhythm” interwoven with the syncopation of ragtime made the composition distinct: while the song’s referentiality points to its development in the theatrical culmination of the suite, it also indicates the culmination and seriousness of the suite’s compositional development and gesture toward the idea of ragtime’s “evolution”: “Perhaps [the introduction of Hispanic rhythm] . . . was...