Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture (Music in American Life)

by Patricia R. Schroeder

"Suddenly Robert Johnson is everywhere. Though the Mississippi bluesman died young and recorded only twenty-nine songs, the legacy, legend, and lore surrounding him continue to grow. Focusing on these developments, Patricia R. Schroeder's Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture breaks new ground in Johnson scholarship, going beyond simple or speculative biography to explore him in his larger role as a contemporary cultural icon." "Part literary analysis, part cultural criticism, and part biographical study, Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture shows the Robert Johnson of today to be less a two-dimensional character fixed by the few known facts of his life than a dynamic and contested set of ideas." "Represented in novels, in plays, and even on a postage stamp, he provides inspiration for "highbrow" cultural artifacts - such as poems - as well as Hollywood movies and T-shirts. Schroeder's detailed and scholarly analysis directly engages key