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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Ethos Of The Blues: An Ethnography Of Blues Singers And Writers, Zoë Emilie Peterschild Ford
The Ethos Of The Blues: An Ethnography Of Blues Singers And Writers, Zoë Emilie Peterschild Ford
Senior Projects Spring 2020
Dawn Tyler Watson, a blues singer based in Montreal, QC, performs a variety of genres. No matter what she performs, however, she continually expresses a blues ethos. Through improvisation and her resolute individuality Dawn writes and sings narratives always with a nod to the blues. What I call the “ethos of the blues” refers to a blues spirit that exists not only in music, but in literature, and in everyday life. Dawn’s practice reveals that blues is a music that values protective, generous, and exploratory narrative. As important as its storytelling quality is the genre’s Americanness. Blues, derived from a …
Despite The Blues: Richard Wright And Ralph Ellison’S Blues Based Works, Miranda Virginia Reale
Despite The Blues: Richard Wright And Ralph Ellison’S Blues Based Works, Miranda Virginia Reale
Senior Projects Spring 2020
Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture
Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schoolin'
Ain't got no love, ain't got no name
Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token
Ain't got no god
–Nina Simone, “Ain’t Got No-I Got Life,” from the album Nuff Said (1968).
In between human intention and reality lies a disproportionate space that Albert Camus labels “the absurd.” Modern man’s affliction is thus absurd, as orthodox systems turn obsolete, the traditional virtues of the past cease to be familiar. The epistemology of the absurd may not have developed from American soil; but I …