Content area
Abstract
Everything that has been written about the blues—more than 40,000 bibliographical entries—constitutes a discourse of “what has already been said” about the blues. The actual facts of blues history remain poorly documented. Most scholarly work on the blues has dealt with blues music and lyrics as “sources” for African American poetry and novels, particularly from the Harlem Renaissance. This work is more in the realm of Cultural Studies and centers around the use of the blues in advertising, corporate sponsorship, festivals, and tourism: How is it that the blues is a signifier of authenticity and anti-commercialism even as it is used to create an image for companies like Volkswagen? How does the discourse surrounding the blues create “colonial subjects” by perpetuating stereotypes? The blues is best thought of as a form of colonial discourse in which matters of race, literacy, sexuality, and class are negotiated.
