ImpersoNation: Toward a Theory of Black-, Red-, and Yellowface in the Americas

How shall we face the enormous evidence of impersonation as a central cultural practice in the development of national discourses in the Americas? It is well known that, in December 1773, a ship named Dartmouth sat idle in Boston Harbor, prevented from unloading her cargo by the governor in protest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PMLA : Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 2008-10, Vol.123 (5), p.1728-1731
Main Author: Lane, Jill
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American culture
Articulation
Blackness studies
Correspondents at Large
Cultural anthropology
Discourse analysis
Harbors
Impersonations
National identity
Performative utterances
Poetry
Racial identity
Rebellion
Romantic poetry
Slaves
United States history
Workforce
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Summary:How shall we face the enormous evidence of impersonation as a central cultural practice in the development of national discourses in the Americas? It is well known that, in December 1773, a ship named Dartmouth sat idle in Boston Harbor, prevented from unloading her cargo by the governor in protest of the import tax and prevented from leaving the harbor by customs rules. As the customs period came to a close, a group of newly patriotic Bostonians came up with a plan to resolve the crisis. One historian recounts, “a chorus of Indian war whoops sounded outside the hall and a party of what looked like Indian men ran to the wharf, entered the ships, and proceeded to dump the tea in Boston Harbor” (Deloria 2). And the rest, as they say, was history: the Boston Tea Party has since functioned as favored tale of origin for American independence and national identity.
ISSN:0030-8129
1938-1530
DOI:10.1632/pmla.2008.123.5.1728