Thaumaturgic, Cartoon Blackface
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22157283 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Parisa Vaziri (Cornell University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2021-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Lateral (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2469-4053 • E-ISSN: 2469-4053 |
| Publisher | Cultural Studies Association (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.25158/l10.1.17 |
| OpenAlex | W3167035500 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
This essay explores how a particular medium—the comic—exposes the limitations of conventional narratives about sīyāh bāzī (Persian blackface) and hājī fīrūz (a famous blackface figure). Many commentators disavow the racial connotations of sīyāh bāzī and hājī fīrūz, concocting pseudo-historical genealogies that link the improvisatory tradition and figure to pre-Islamic practices; commentators thus repress the tradition’s obvious resonances with the history of African enslavement in Iran. Through a close reading of a comic strip from a 1960s Persian periodical, I argue that historicism is an inadequate framework for adjudicating sīyāh bāzī’s racial or “nonracial” character. Instead, I suggest that cartoon Blackness is always already racial, since the comic form depends upon a process of simplification that is at the heart of racialization
Allegory · Art · Art history · Blackface · Comics · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Political science · Race (biology) · Racialization · Sociology · Spectacle · Gender Studies · Hispanic-African Historical Relations · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |