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The Limits of Genre: Black Feminist Soundscapes in Toni Cade Bambara’s “Medley”

Thu, November 9, 10:00 to 11:45am, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Dusable, Third Floor West Tower

Abstract

This paper explores the use of black feminist soundscapes in Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “Medley” of The Sea Birds Are Still Alive, to the end of alternatively narrating black women’s praxis as constitutive of black music traditions, such as the black avant-garde jazz tradition, while simultaneously reveals the limits of these traditions. Approximating Farah Jasmine Griffin’s understanding of “Medley” as a work of “jazz fiction,” I argue that Bambara reveals that black feminist soundscapes require the sonic and pedagogical method of medley, “a collection of songs or other musical items performed as a continuous piece” in order to take up an interstitial praxis that lays bare the limits of genre and the disruptive potential of black feminism. Bambara’s “Medley” requires us to disavow the disciplinary limits of ‘black literature’ and ‘jazz’ in order to narrate the interiority of Sweet Pea’s life.

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