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

to resemble the "oyster plant," a picture phrasing the sexual implications inherent in the black female figure rather explicitly. The presence of the very real threat of sexual "amalgamation" or racial mixing between the black female and the white male was too close to everyday realities, and therefore was cautiously avoided by songsmiths. Instead, songwriters did their best to prove the black female undesirable and unattractive at every possible turn, a strategy already familiar from minstrel representations of the Dandy Darky character. To make a feature undesirable, songsmiths often turned to the method of exaggeration, and thus the grotesque came to life. Eyes, noses, ears, lips, mouths came to be enlarged over the limit. The enormous size of the black female's feet was also a favorite topic of Ugly Female songs, and it is quite amazing how inventive songsmiths grew on the subject. "Lubly Fan" had feet that "covered up de whole side-walk" leaving no room for her suitor, the heroine of "Who's Dat Nigga," Miss Dinah Crow could pride herself over such a gigantic foot that "when it dropt it was death to all creeping insects." Similarly disastrous effects resulted from the heels of Ugly Females described in songs such as "What A Heel She's Got Behind Her" (Dennison 125) or "The Ole Gray Goose." Miss Dinah Rose of the latter song, unlike many of her Ugly Female counterparts, did not feel even a little sore over her bodily disadvantage, to the contrary: Says I to her: you Dinah Gal Onlylooky dar Dem heels are sticking out too far As a niggar I declar. Says she to me, you nigger Jo What are you about Dere's science in dem are heels And I want em to stick out. /Starr/ 98