“A cool drink of water before I die": Four modern John Henry songs

• Sealey-Morris, Gabriel ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Georgia

     University of Georgia

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 74, nº 4, 2009, págs. 406-421
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Using Kenneth Burke's pentadic method of criticism, a study of four modern compositions based on the legend of John Henry reveals modern white anxieties—ambivalent attitudes toward class, race, and agency that leave modern white performers far less certain than their folk precursors about the nature of the world and of heroism. While the composers of modern John Henry songs emulate the traditional ballad's populist idealism, their compositions betray a doubleness of mind that vacillates between celebrating John Henry as an agent and pitying him as a victim of his environment. In a postlabor America only a radical recontextualization of John Henry as a creative hero can salvage the myth for a new century.