Book contents
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Whiteness and National Identity
- Chapter 1 The Imperial Sounds of Whiteness
- Chapter 2 Whiteness in Late Nineteenth-Century Literature and Law
- Chapter 3 Poor White People in the Eugenic Imagination
- Chapter 4 White Nationalism
- Chapter 5 Whiteness and the US–Mexico Border
- Chapter 6 How Hollywood Pictures Whiteness
- Chapter 7 Whiteface Minstrels, Stage Europeans, and Twenty-First-Century Television Dramas
- Part II Whiteness in the American Literary Imagination
- Part III Approaches to Whiteness
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 1 - The Imperial Sounds of Whiteness
from Part I - Whiteness and National Identity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture
- Whiteness and American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Whiteness and National Identity
- Chapter 1 The Imperial Sounds of Whiteness
- Chapter 2 Whiteness in Late Nineteenth-Century Literature and Law
- Chapter 3 Poor White People in the Eugenic Imagination
- Chapter 4 White Nationalism
- Chapter 5 Whiteness and the US–Mexico Border
- Chapter 6 How Hollywood Pictures Whiteness
- Chapter 7 Whiteface Minstrels, Stage Europeans, and Twenty-First-Century Television Dramas
- Part II Whiteness in the American Literary Imagination
- Part III Approaches to Whiteness
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter focuses on “Hot Time in the Old Town” (1896), a popular US song that played an important role in turn-of-the-century imperial culture. Tracing the Black origins and reputation of this de facto anthem, Stecopoulos demonstrates that white Americans used “raced” domestic culture as a means of asserting a national identity even as they sought to extend the borders of the United States through Caribbean and Pacific conquest. By contrast, African American intellectuals of the era recognized that the popularity of “Hot Time” might offer them a cultural means of legitimating Black claims on national identity.
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- Whiteness and American Literature , pp. 13 - 26Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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