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

Minstrelsy as a public theory of culture and society is closest to Bakhtin's view of the grotesque, where "the comic aspect of the folk carnival [is endowed] with meaningful philosophical content that expresses Utopian ideals of community, freedom, equality, and abundance" ((Makaryk 88). This is a theory also strangely present in the conceptual framework of the minstrel show, which suggested acculturation, assimilation, and intermixture as possible cultural and political alternatives for Blacks, while in actuality it strongly moved against these "threatening" processes. Under the guise of these utopistic cultural principles, the blackface actor was given sufficient freedom to do whatever he pleased with the pseudo-black stage image or the pseudo-cultural baggage he was supposed to carry. Having observed the most essential manifestations and varieties of the minstrel grotesque, I will bring this analysis to more practical grounds, illustrating its concrete realizations through the minstrel lyrics. Concrete examples will be brought primarily to indicate the embodiments of the literary minstrel grotesque from the theme of comic love alone. Analysis will thus include the characters involved in the comic love theme; physical manifestations; bizarre props and costumes; plots and happenings; and further areas of the minstrel grotesque such as mask, language, and dance. References to wider aspects of the minstrel grotesque will be made throughout the following review, incorporating the subliterary, social, cultural and racial domains that minstrelsy and the aesthetics qualities linked to it also penetrate. 2. GROTESQUE CHARACTERS OF THE COMIC LOVE THEME Besides the two well-established stereotypes popularized by minstrel stages, the Happy Plantation Darky and the Northern Dandy 95