Eugene Stratton and Early Ragtime in Britain

Black Music Research Journal

Pickering examines Stratton's popular blackface routine in late 19th century Britain. He argues that Victorian society defined itself as modern and civilized vis-à-vis a stereotyped racial "other"-yet also cynically suppressed awareness of the brutal colonial oppression attending its growing empire. Stratton made "visible for his British audiences what was otherwise evaded or concealed ‘inside themselves'."

Categories
Site Section: 
Resource: 
Resource Type: 
Jazz by Geography: 
Jazz by Era: 
Additional Keywords: 
acrobatics, blackface, Britain, dancing, England, Eugene Stratton, minstrel shows, minstrelsy, race relations, ragtime, UK, Victorian era