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Blood, Earth, Water: the Tragic Mulatta in U.S. Literature, History, and Performance

Neff, Aviva Helena
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626345564472066

Abstract Details

2021, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Theatre.
Early nineteenth-century mixed-Black Americans were made complicit in the propaganda of both pro-slavery and abolitionist messaging, at times upheld as model minorities for their contributions to the Southern slave-owning plantation economy, while other times depicted in heart-breaking abolitionist narratives about the evils of slavery, and the often-deadly identity crises these “tragic” people were subjected to. The reality of mixed-Black existence was far less dramatic than the lives of the characters in texts such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), or Dion Boucicaut's The Octoroon (1859); what was revealed to contemporary white audiences was a desire to sympathize with the Other who occupied the closest proximity to whiteness. Thus, the trope of the “tragic mulatto/a” became a vehicle for propagandizing the moral “goodness” of white society and its positive, Christian, “civilizing” influence on the Black and/or indigenous Other. This Practice-as-Research dissertation examines the manner in which miscegenation between Black and white Americans has been feared, fetishized, and resurrected in popular historical narratives over the past two centuries. Living between races, conceived out of wedlock and often as a result of sexual assault, the “tragic mulatta” is often depicted as a pitiable creature, beautiful, yet doomed by her sundry origins. Unable to claim full membership in neither racial group, she lacked both the honored status offered to white wives and mothers in traditional society, and any form of social protection against sexual exploitation. This project contains four chapters which detail the people, places, and creative work that informed my Practice-as-Research play, Blood, Earth, Water.
Jennifer Schlueter, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Beth Kattelman, Dr. (Committee Member)
Nadine George-Graves, Dr. (Committee Member)
157 p.
African Americans; American History; American Literature; Black History; Black Studies; Gender Studies; History; Museum Studies; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies
tragic mulatta; theatre; antebellum; autoethnography; Reconstruction; Marie Laveau; Lulu White; New Orleans; haunting; slavery; miscegenation; octoroon; mulatto; mixed Black; US History; Beyonce; Black feminism; museum studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Neff, A. H. (2021). Blood, Earth, Water: the Tragic Mulatta in U.S. Literature, History, and Performance [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626345564472066

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Neff, Aviva. Blood, Earth, Water: the Tragic Mulatta in U.S. Literature, History, and Performance. 2021. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626345564472066.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Neff, Aviva. "Blood, Earth, Water: the Tragic Mulatta in U.S. Literature, History, and Performance." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1626345564472066

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1626345564472066
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.