The Freedom to Remember: Narrative, Slavery, and Gender in Contemporary Black Woman's Fiction
Title
The Freedom to Remember: Narrative, Slavery, and Gender in Contemporary Black Woman's Fiction
Publisher
Date
Photographer
Photograph Title
Ex-Slave with Long Memory, Alabama ca. 1937 (painted detail copy)
Group
FSA
Notes
This cover includes a painting by Joseph Holston, entitled Miz Emily 1984. It is clearly taken from Dorothea Lange's well-known photograph Ex-Slave with Long Memory, Alabama (ca. 1937). This copy is perfectly legal, as Lange's image for the Farm Security Administration, is in the public domain.
Miz Emily - a large detail of Lange's original - is also and entirely appropriate image for the book's subject matter.
What interests me is how Ex-Slave has been transformed in the process of appropriation; elongated and colored in the fiery hues of the sun going down, giving it an injection of clichéd emotion, As if El Greco and Edvard Munch collaborated to make "something that will sell".
The cover background is an image of burlap, referencing the process of picking cotton.
KB
To view an uncropped version of Dorothea Lange's original, click here.
To view more books that appropriate Lange's Ex-Slave for their cover image, scroll down to "Multiple Uses".
Miz Emily - a large detail of Lange's original - is also and entirely appropriate image for the book's subject matter.
What interests me is how Ex-Slave has been transformed in the process of appropriation; elongated and colored in the fiery hues of the sun going down, giving it an injection of clichéd emotion, As if El Greco and Edvard Munch collaborated to make "something that will sell".
The cover background is an image of burlap, referencing the process of picking cotton.
KB
To view an uncropped version of Dorothea Lange's original, click here.
To view more books that appropriate Lange's Ex-Slave for their cover image, scroll down to "Multiple Uses".
Photo Genre
Designer
Collection
Citation
“The Freedom to Remember: Narrative, Slavery, and Gender in Contemporary Black Woman's Fiction,” Covering Photography, accessed November 21, 2024, https://coveringphotography.bc.edu/items/show/7044.
