Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - Gabriella Varró: The Theme of Comic Love in Blackface Minstrelsy: The Anatomy of the Grotesque

The grotesqueness of the black female's physical appearance was extended to every feature of her body. Songsmiths left not a single body part intact from ridicule. A recurring cliché of the character was her oversized body, feet and mouth. The fatness of the female body was contemplated in many a minstrel song. 'The Ole Gray Goose," for instance, described the size of Miss Dinah Rose's body in such exaggerated manner: "she war by gosh so berry fat/ I couldn't sit beside her" (Starr)

6. Most Ugly Female jokes revolved around the black female's facial features (specified, for instance, as a "sooty 'plexion" in one version of "Old Dan Tucker")

, the color of her eyes, lips and teeth (e.g. "her teef was like de clar grit snow/ And her eyes like dem beans dat shine from de Moon/ sharper dan de teef of de Possum and de Koon," in "Who's Dat Nigga..."), the size of the mouth, the lips and the teeth (e.g. "Her lips war big, she could sing like a pig,/ Her mouth stretched from ear to ear" in "In De Wild Rackoon Track"

7). A considerable number of wild metaphors applied to characterize facial features used animal similes underlining the alleged animality of the black female in a manner similar to the treatment of the pseudo black male of minstrelsy. Other similes directed attention to the sexual appeal of the black female. In a popular version of "Lubly Fan Will You Come Out To Night?,"

8 in the Starr Collection, pieces the black female's lips are made ® References to "Starr" indicate a quote from the Starr Sheet Music Collection's minstrel lyrics at Indiana University's Lilly Library, Bloomington, Indiana. 7 "Old Dan Tucker," '"Who's Dat Nigga" and "In De Wild Rackoon Track" all quoted in Dennison 122—3, and 134—5. 8 "Lubly Fan" Brown University, Harris Collection, no. 39. In Starr. M1.S8, AfroAmericans before 1863. The song, according to the Brown University notes for the piece, is evidently the long-lost original of the "Bowery Gals." It was written by Cool White, the year after he had organized the Virginia Serenaders, and it was sung by his banjoist, Jim Carter. Nobody seems to know why it was as "Buffalo Gals" that the song became famous. It is sung by Jim in chapter II of Tom Sawyer (Brown library Notes)

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