Assistant Professor of African-American Literature and History and Theory of Race in Literature at the University of Toledo
About
Dr. Kimberly Mack is an assistant professor of African-American literature and history and theory of race in literature at the University of Toledo. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her current book project, Fade to Black: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White, explores the autobiographical impulse in contemporary American blues literature, drama, and popular music. She is the author of There's No Home for You Here: Jack White and the Unsolvable Problem of Blues Authenticity (Musical Autobiographies, eds. Martin Butler and Daniel Stein, special issue of Popular Music and Society, 2015). She is also a music journalist who has written articles and reviews for various international and national publications, including Music Connection, Village Voice, Relix, PopMatters, and Hot Press.
Current Work:
Dr. Mack's current book project, Fade to Black: Blues Music and the Art of Narrative Self-Invention from Bessie Smith to Jack White, is the story of how a range of blues artists, both real and imagined, invented their own personas independent of the so-called "authentic" blues. From the familiar story of Delta Blues musician Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at a Mississippi crossroads in exchange for his guitar virtuosity, to the violent, Black bad man of the early 20th century American imagination, the racial myths surrounding so-called authentic blues expression are beloved by many blues fans and critics.
But far from having ready-made racial and cultural identities, these blues makers have instead fashioned worlds through their own fictionalized autobiographical and biographical storytelling and self-made personas. Using examples culled from literature and contemporary music — close readings of literary passages, historical and contemporary interviews, live concert performances, music videos, and songs — Fade to Black shows how fictional and real-life blues artists create these self-made identities in the works of American writers as disparate as Sherman Alexie, Alice Walker, and Walter Mosley, and in the music of modern acts such as Amy Winehouse, Jack White, and Gary Clark Jr. It is through their storytelling, both as fictional narrators and in song lyrics and constructed public personas, that these artists are able to resist racial, social, economic, and gendered oppression while writing themselves into the blues tradition.
Research Area Keyword(s):
20th and 21st century ethnic American literature; race; autobiographical narratives; performativity; American popular music
