{"product_id":"under-a-bad-sign-jonathan-munby-9780226550350","title":"Under a Bad Sign: Criminal Self-Representation in African American Popular Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat accounts for the persistence of the figure of the black criminal in popular culture created by African Americans? Unearthing the overlooked history of art that has often seemed at odds with the politics of civil rights and racial advancement, \u003ci\u003eUnder a Bad Sign\u003c\/i\u003e explores the rationale behind this tradition of criminal self-representation from the Harlem Renaissance to contemporary gangsta culture. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this lively exploration, Jonathan Munby takes a uniquely broad view, laying bare the way the criminal appears within and moves among literary, musical, and visual arts. Munby traces the legacy of badness in Rudolph Fisher and Chester Himes's detective fiction and in Claude McKay, Julian Mayfield, and Donald Goines's urban experience writing. Ranging from Peetie Wheatstraw's gangster blues to gangsta rap, he also examines criminals in popular songs. Turning to the screen, the underworld films of Oscar Micheaux and Ralph Cooper, the 1970s blaxploitation cycle, and the 1990s hood movie come under his microscope as well. Ultimately, Munby concludes that this tradition has been a misunderstood aspect of African American civic life and that, rather than undermining black culture, it forms a rich and enduring response to being outcast in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jonathan Munby\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226550354\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226550350\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/15\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.11lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2011","brand":"Jonathan Munby","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48013708198143,"sku":"9780226550350","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/under-a-bad-sign-jonathan-munby-9780226550350","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}