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Stalinův černý apoštol: afroamerický zpěvák Paul Robeson v Československu

100%

Schormová F.

Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

2021

vol. 28

issue 1

183-213

Paul Robeson (1898–1976), an African American singer, athlete, actor, and Leftist political activist, visited Czechoslovakia in 1929, 1945, 1949, and 1959. He was in contact with official Czechoslovak structures, was writing about Czech music, and learning Czech. This article focuses especially on his 1949 visit and Robeson’s economic and artistic relations to Czechoslovakia. It also explores the broader context of relations between Czechoslovakia and the Afro-American community against the backdrop of the early Cold War, decolonization processes, and the onset of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. In doing so, it also looks at mechanism of cultural exchange within the Radical Leftist internationalist networks, including the dominant role Robeson played as the “introducer” of African American music and culture in Czechoslovakia during the 1950s, and also at views of Czechoslovak cultural intermediaries, such as writer Josef Škvorecký (1924–2012) or musicologist, journalist and music critic Lubomír Dorůžka (1924–2013), on jazz and African American spirituals, which contrasted with those of Robeson. In the Czech context, Robeson is mainly remembered through Škvorecký’s critical comments, labelling Robeson “Stalin’s Black Apostle”. US accounts of Robeson, on the other hand, have often, and until recently, presented a depoliticized version of Robeson, understating the importance of his international activities. A view of Robeson’s career based on Czech and US archival sources, as well as new studies on Robeson and the internationalist networks within which he was operating, cast doubts on both of these narratives and offer a chance to reconsider and re-evaluate this historical figure and the transnational dynamics that brought him to Czechoslovakia.

Performing Protest in Cross-Cultural Spaces: Paul Robeson and Othello

81%

Sawyer R.

Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance

2017

vol. 15

issue 30

77-90

When the famous African-American actor and singer Paul Robeson played the lead in Shakespeare’s Othello in London in 1930, tickets were in high demand during the production’s first week. The critical response, however, was less positive, although the reviews unanimously praised his bass-baritone delivery. When Robeson again played Othello on Broadway thirteen years later, critics praised not only his voice but also his acting, the drama running for 296 performances. My argument concerning Robeson uses elements first noted by Henri Lefebvre in his seminal work, The Production of Space, while I also draw on Paul Connerton’s work on commemorative practices. Using spatial and memorial theories as a backdrop for examining his two portrayals, I suggest that Robeson’s nascent geopolitical awareness following the 1930 production, combined with his already celebrated musical voice, allowed him to perform the role more dramatically in 1943.

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1 Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance

1 Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History)

1 Sawyer R.

1 Schormová F.

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1 2017

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Stalinův černý apoštol: afroamerický zpěvák Paul Robeson v Československu

Performing Protest in Cross-Cultural Spaces: Paul Robeson and Othello