Rhetorical operatives in selected blues lyrics of Bessie Smith
Date
1983
Authors
Bowers, Detine L., author
Vancil, David L., advisor
Irvine, James, committee member
Gravlee, G. Jack, committee member
Sims, William, committee member
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Abstract
A joint study of music and rhetoric allows for the expansion of the function and scope of both disciplines. This study is concerned with the periphery of rhetoric, specifically, its relationship to 1920s Blues. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine whether popular musical lyrics can be analyzed rhetorically and to further assess the potential rhetorical operatives in Blues lyrics by Bessie Smith. The subject, Bessie Smith, and the study, are justified because both attempt to articulate an idea based on a particular culture; the former applies the theory whereas the latter explains the theory and how it has useful rhetorical dimensions. Thus, the study examines how Blues lyrics modify existing attitudes. In order to assess the extent of attitude modification, the study reviews the cultural context in which Blues was performed, develops a conceptual model, based on Burkeian theoretical premises, for analyzing rhetorical operatives in Blues lyrics, and applies the model to selected Blues lyrics. The conclusion to this study points to how a poetic form functions rhetorically. By analyzing nine selected lyrics composed by Bessie Smith between 1923 and 1930, it can be concluded that her lyrics were persuasive statements which sustained Black America until the inception of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In many respects, Blues serves as a liberating catharsis for Blacks amidst oppression. Bessie Smith employs an epideictic address while influencing the Black audience. At the time of Bessie Smith's performance, Blacks were in the midst of a premovement era and Blues was a means for communicating by evoking the transcendence of pain incurred by Black degradation and deprivation. From this perspective, it may be concluded that Bessie Smith's Blues was a "responsible rhetoric."
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Subject
Blues (Music)