Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being Seen
This article explores how Josephine Baker leveraged post–World War I European primitivism to subvert her mostly white male audience's voyeuristic gaze. Baker's youthful experiences with early twentieth-century American minstrelsy fostered many techniques, from cross-dressing to whiteface,...
Saved in:
| Published in | French historical studies Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 427 - 455 |
|---|---|
| Main Author | |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
01.08.2023
|
| Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
| Abstract | This article explores how Josephine Baker leveraged post–World War I European primitivism to subvert her mostly white male audience's voyeuristic gaze. Baker's youthful experiences with early twentieth-century American minstrelsy fostered many techniques, from cross-dressing to whiteface, that proved useful for navigating her sudden fame in Jazz Age Paris. In particular, Baker's subversive parody of her rival Mistinguett in La joie de Paris in 1932 demonstrates how skin color, despite becoming both fetish and fashion during the interwar period, still fell into colonial hierarchies. Baker used her body to resist this system, moving away from her two-dimensional public image as a nude banana dancer and closer to the World War II agent and antisegregation activist she would soon become. The theories of Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon, Joanne B. Eicher, and Laura Mulvey help elucidate how this 1932 performance, by destabilizing gendered and racialized stereotypes, marks a significant turning point in Baker's political consciousness. |
|---|---|
| AbstractList | This article explores how Josephine Baker leveraged post–World War I European primitivism to subvert her mostly white male audience's voyeuristic gaze. Baker's youthful experiences with early twentieth-century American minstrelsy fostered many techniques, from cross-dressing to whiteface, that proved useful for navigating her sudden fame in Jazz Age Paris. In particular, Baker's subversive parody of her rival Mistinguett in La joie de Paris in 1932 demonstrates how skin color, despite becoming both fetish and fashion during the interwar period, still fell into colonial hierarchies. Baker used her body to resist this system, moving away from her two-dimensional public image as a nude banana dancer and closer to the World War II agent and antisegregation activist she would soon become. The theories of Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon, Joanne B. Eicher, and Laura Mulvey help elucidate how this 1932 performance, by destabilizing gendered and racialized stereotypes, marks a significant turning point in Baker's political consciousness. |
| Author | Cenatiempo, Dantzel |
| Author_xml | – sequence: 1 givenname: Dantzel surname: Cenatiempo fullname: Cenatiempo, Dantzel |
| BookMark | eNqdjk0KwjAQhQepYKsewF1xbXSmSazdKkr3Ci5DkFQqmkpm1dtrwF7A1eP9wZdB4jvvABaEaypIbxBpS1iSIFRa7bQcQUq6KIVWlUwgjb2IgwlkzA9ErL67FJZX23PeNfnZudbfV_ng99HG1M9g3Ngnu_lPp0Cn4-VQi1vomINrzDu0Lxt6Q2gijBlgzAAj__l8AFaOOn0 |
| Cites_doi | 10.2307/j.ctt1dfnshk 10.1086/448901 10.2307/29738039 10.1177/0961463X09354420 10.2979/FIL.2005.17.1.125 10.1093/oso/9780195104035.001.0001 10.9783/9780812291247 10.2307/778760 10.2307/1919438 10.3917/ag.660.0129 |
| ContentType | Journal Article |
| DBID | AAYXX CITATION |
| DOI | 10.1215/00161071-10454853 |
| DatabaseName | CrossRef |
| DatabaseTitle | CrossRef |
| DatabaseTitleList | CrossRef |
| DeliveryMethod | fulltext_linktorsrc |
| Discipline | History & Archaeology |
| EISSN | 1527-5493 |
| EndPage | 455 |
| ExternalDocumentID | 10_1215_00161071_10454853 |
| GroupedDBID | -DZ -ET -~X .4H 18M 1XN 29H 2FS 3R3 4.4 42P 5GY 709 7~W 7~X 7~Y 85S AACJB AAGFK AAGMW AAKWO AAUAD AAVNP AAYXX ABBWU ABCQX ABDBF ABPAR ABPPZ ACGFO ACHKQ ACNCT ACTXP ADBTP ADKZO ADMHG ADOJV AEGXH AEHBO AEPHM AEQRH AFFKJ AFZZO AHRKF AIAGR AJJLN AKDEK ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS BKOMP CITATION CS3 DU5 EAP EAS EBS EHI EMK EPL ERH ESX F5P H13 HMHOC JAC L7B MSI MUA MUP MVM N9A P2P PQQKQ RC9 RDU RHI RWL RXW SJN TAE TDU TN5 WH7 XSW YZZ ~45 |
| ID | FETCH-crossref_primary_10_1215_00161071_104548533 |
| ISSN | 0016-1071 |
| IngestDate | Thu Nov 21 23:11:43 EST 2024 |
| IsPeerReviewed | true |
| IsScholarly | true |
| Issue | 3 |
| Language | English |
| LinkModel | OpenURL |
| MergedId | FETCHMERGED-crossref_primary_10_1215_00161071_104548533 |
| ParticipantIDs | crossref_primary_10_1215_00161071_10454853 |
| PublicationCentury | 2000 |
| PublicationDate | 2023-08-01 |
| PublicationDateYYYYMMDD | 2023-08-01 |
| PublicationDate_xml | – month: 08 year: 2023 text: 2023-08-01 day: 01 |
| PublicationDecade | 2020 |
| PublicationTitle | French historical studies |
| PublicationYear | 2023 |
| References | Gates (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C20) 1998; 24 Erbstein-Thomé (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C16) 1994 Coffman (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C11) 2017 Rose (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C42) 1989 Haney (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C25) 2002 Pawlowski (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C41) 1932 Staszak (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C44) 2008; 660 Bhabha (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C5) 1996 Boittin (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C6) 2010 Cheng (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C10) 2013 Legrand-Chabrier (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C33) 1933 Archer-Straw (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C1) 2000 Lemke (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C34) 1998 Baker (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C3) 1993 Roujon (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C43) 1932 Colin (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C12) 1957 Dayal (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C13) 2004 Healy (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C26) 1958; 15 Mosse (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C36) 1978 Butler (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C9) 1990 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C22 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C40 Wood (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C47) 2000 Hammond (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C24) 1988 Jules-Rosette (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C30) 2007 Mulvey (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C38) 2009 Berliner (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C4) 2002 Kelly (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C31) 1999; 26 Parkins (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C39) 2010; 19 Verney (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C46) 2003 Lacan (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C32) 1990 McClintock (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C35) 1995 Burns (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C8) 2002 Ekotto (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C15) 2011 Fanon (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C17) 1967 Habel (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C23) 2005; 17 Joseph (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C29) 2013 Mulvey (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C37) 1993; 65 Borshuk (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C7) 2017 Huntington (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C28) 1914; 5 Stovall (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C45) 2012 Gilman (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C21) 1985 Eicher (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C14) 2008 Henderson (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C27) 2017 Baker (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C2) 1993 Flanner (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C18) 1972 Garber (2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C19) 1992 |
| References_xml | – volume-title: The Josephine Baker Story year: 2000 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C47 contributor: fullname: Wood – volume-title: Colonial Metropolis: The Urban Grounds of Anti-imperialism and Feminism in Interwar Paris year: 2010 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C6 doi: 10.2307/j.ctt1dfnshk contributor: fullname: Boittin – volume-title: Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image year: 2007 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C30 contributor: fullname: Jules-Rosette – volume: 24 start-page: 903 issue: 4 year: 1998 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C20 article-title: Josephine Baker and Paul Colin: African American Dance Seen through Parisian Eyes publication-title: Critical Inquiry doi: 10.1086/448901 contributor: fullname: Gates – volume-title: Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety year: 1992 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C19 contributor: fullname: Garber – volume-title: Josephine: The Hungry Heart year: 1993 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C2 contributor: fullname: Baker – volume-title: Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest year: 1995 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C35 contributor: fullname: McClintock – volume-title: La croûte: Souvenirs year: 1957 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C12 contributor: fullname: Colin – volume-title: Race and Sex across the French Atlantic: The Color of Black in Literary, Philosophical, and Theater Discourse year: 2011 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C15 contributor: fullname: Ekotto – volume-title: Naked at the Feast: The Biography of Josephine Baker year: 2002 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C25 contributor: fullname: Haney – volume: 5 start-page: 185 issue: 2 year: 1914 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C28 article-title: The Adaptability of the White Man to Tropical America publication-title: Journal of Race Development doi: 10.2307/29738039 contributor: fullname: Huntington – volume: 19 start-page: 98 issue: 1 year: 2010 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C39 article-title: Fashion as Methodology: Rewriting the Time of Women's Modernity publication-title: Time and Society doi: 10.1177/0961463X09354420 contributor: fullname: Parkins – start-page: 35 volume-title: Blackening Europe: The African American Presence year: 2004 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C13 article-title: Blackness as Symptom: Josephine Baker and European Identity contributor: fullname: Dayal – volume-title: Josephine Baker year: 1988 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C24 contributor: fullname: Hammond – volume: 17 start-page: 125 issue: 1 year: 2005 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C23 article-title: To Stockholm, with Love: The Critical Reception of Josephine Baker, 1927–1935 publication-title: Film History: An International Journal doi: 10.2979/FIL.2005.17.1.125 contributor: fullname: Habel – start-page: 25 year: 2012 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C45 article-title: Bringing the Jazz Age to Paris publication-title: Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light contributor: fullname: Stovall – volume-title: Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial year: 2013 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C29 contributor: fullname: Joseph – volume-title: Primitivist Modernism: Black Culture and the Origins of Transatlantic Modernism year: 1998 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C34 doi: 10.1093/oso/9780195104035.001.0001 contributor: fullname: Lemke – volume-title: Courtly Love Undressed: Reading through Clothes in Medieval French Culture year: 2002 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C8 doi: 10.9783/9780812291247 contributor: fullname: Burns – volume-title: Paris Was Yesterday, 1925–1938 year: 1972 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C18 contributor: fullname: Flanner – year: 1967 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C17 publication-title: Black Skin, White Masks contributor: fullname: Fanon – volume-title: Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment year: 1990 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C32 contributor: fullname: Lacan – volume: 65 start-page: 3 year: 1993 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C37 article-title: Some Thoughts on Theories of Fetishism in the Context of Contemporary Culture publication-title: October doi: 10.2307/778760 contributor: fullname: Mulvey – volume-title: Second Skin: Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface year: 2013 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C10 contributor: fullname: Cheng – ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C40 – year: 1932 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C41 article-title: La joie de Paris au Casino de Paris publication-title: Le journal contributor: fullname: Pawlowski – volume-title: Paul Colin, le magicien des Années Folles year: 1994 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C16 contributor: fullname: Erbstein-Thomé – volume-title: Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time year: 1989 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C42 contributor: fullname: Rose – volume-title: Josephine year: 1993 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C3 contributor: fullname: Baker – volume-title: Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism year: 1978 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C36 contributor: fullname: Mosse – year: 1932 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C43 article-title: Casino de Paris: Grande première de gala publication-title: Le petit parisien contributor: fullname: Roujon – start-page: 128 volume-title: The Josephine Baker Critical Reader: Selected Writings on the Entertainer and Activist year: 2017 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C7 article-title: An Intelligence of the Body: Disruptive Parody through Dance in the Early Performances of Josephine Baker contributor: fullname: Borshuk – start-page: 170 volume-title: The Josephine Baker Critical Reader: Selected Writings on the Entertainer and Activist year: 2017 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C11 article-title: Uncanny Performances in Colonial Narratives: Josephine Baker in Princess Tam Tam contributor: fullname: Coffman – volume-title: Ambivalent Desire: The Exotic Black Other in Jazz-Age France year: 2002 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C4 contributor: fullname: Berliner – start-page: 87 volume-title: Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader year: 1996 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C5 article-title: The Other Question: Difference, Discrimination, and the Discourse of Colonialism contributor: fullname: Bhabha – volume: 15 start-page: 143 issue: 2 year: 1958 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C26 article-title: The French Jesuits and the Idea of the Noble Savage publication-title: William and Mary Quarterly doi: 10.2307/1919438 contributor: fullname: Healy – volume-title: Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity year: 1990 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C9 contributor: fullname: Butler – start-page: 157 volume-title: The Josephine Baker Critical Reader: Selected Writings on the Entertainer and Activist year: 2017 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C27 article-title: Colonial, Postcolonial, and Diasporic Readings of Josephine Baker as Dancer and Performance Artist contributor: fullname: Henderson – volume: 660 start-page: 129 year: 2008 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C44 article-title: Danse exotique, danse érotique: Perspectives géographiques sur la mise en scène du corps de l'Autre publication-title: Annales de géographie doi: 10.3917/ag.660.0129 contributor: fullname: Staszak – volume-title: Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race, and Madness year: 1985 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C21 contributor: fullname: Gilman – ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C22 – volume-title: Visual and Other Pleasures year: 2009 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C38 contributor: fullname: Mulvey – volume-title: Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s year: 2000 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C1 contributor: fullname: Archer-Straw – year: 1933 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C33 article-title: La joie de Paris au Casino de Paris publication-title: La rampe contributor: fullname: Legrand-Chabrier – volume: 26 start-page: 113 issue: 1 year: 1999 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C31 article-title: Performing the Other: A Consideration of Two Cages publication-title: College Literature contributor: fullname: Kelly – volume-title: African Americans and US Popular Culture year: 2003 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C46 contributor: fullname: Verney – volume-title: The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture, and Society year: 2008 ident: 2023081417000469700_fhs10454853C14 contributor: fullname: Eicher |
| SSID | ssj0009454 |
| Score | 4.6282587 |
| Snippet | This article explores how Josephine Baker leveraged post–World War I European primitivism to subvert her mostly white male audience's voyeuristic gaze. Baker's... |
| SourceID | crossref |
| SourceType | Aggregation Database |
| StartPage | 427 |
| Title | Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being Seen |
| Volume | 46 |
| hasFullText | 1 |
| inHoldings | 1 |
| isFullTextHit | |
| isPrint | |
| link | http://utb.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwnV1LT8JAEJ4oXLwYHxjf2RjjwViEdijtEVBCTPQiRm5NS7fRSzGmHuDXO7s7LUU0AS9Nu2lmu_2aeWxnvgG4bCRew48bvtXGuGUhJrblJ83QUtbEGbfJRGgynccnd_CCD6PWaN6bT1eXZFF9PPu1ruQ_qNIY4aqqZNdAthBKA3RO-NKREKbjShi_hlOdifEsJbcmyUe6UjNtSy70yvtwqtK-N-YYNvWQi2mEPak2BxVbFZefZzNOqeeNAdsp0tIKZdd0ScuaDid1yfrNblsUEjplBch7gO_l-FhrMzRl-2wY0fDpLulcpqdQviNNRjMiRUGGAXiR3_qH3SmyAVUcQkKCXESQi9iEquI3xApUO927bn_OpowtQ6_NK-Tf1STkduk5Sg5HyXMY7sA2u_yiY_DbhQ2Z7kHN8LNMxZVQ5L-hbrA83YcLhaCYJMJgeiPya42oGk1r0OzfD3sDK58w-DCUIcGfS3QOoJJOUnkIQqlaOwxdMjguhn7sRaGHMcYxoky8yD6C69XlHq9z8wlszT-gU6hkn1_yjHytLDrnN_8Nuy8g3A |
| link.rule.ids | 314,780,784,27924,27925 |
| linkProvider | EBSCOhost |
| openUrl | ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Ways+of+Seeing%2C+Ways+of+Being+Seen&rft.jtitle=French+historical+studies&rft.au=Cenatiempo%2C+Dantzel&rft.date=2023-08-01&rft.issn=0016-1071&rft.eissn=1527-5493&rft.volume=46&rft.issue=3&rft.spage=427&rft.epage=455&rft_id=info:doi/10.1215%2F00161071-10454853&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1215_00161071_10454853 |
| thumbnail_l | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/lc.gif&issn=0016-1071&client=summon |
| thumbnail_m | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/mc.gif&issn=0016-1071&client=summon |
| thumbnail_s | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/sc.gif&issn=0016-1071&client=summon |