The Mask of Memory by Jason R Young
Many of the sights and sounds that Americans associate with slavery are rooted in a grandiose historical myth. The image of the Big House, sitting atop carefully manicured rolling green hills, is in large part, a fantasy—as is the idea of the plantation as an expansive family home to chivalrous planters and content slaves. Still, these myths persist. Jason R. Young explores the persistence of these myths and the historical memory of slavery by focusing on the elite white mythmakers who helped shape our understanding of slavery. In the early twentieth century, a group of white writers, artists, and performers from the cultural hub of Charleston, South Carolina, created and curated a highly sanitized view of slavery. They imagined a once and future plantation society that would reestablish them as the proper heirs of the slave past. In the process, they crafted a set of dangerously durable and virulent stereotypes about slavery. Focusing on literature, art, and performance, Young examines both the power and the folly of these ideas. In uncovering their origins, The Mask of Memory resists these racial fantasies and challenges their stubborn resurgence in our own time.“Young writes with originality and versatility on the problems at the nexus of race, power, profit, performance, authenticity, meaning-making, and historical memoryThis compelling work will change how we understand representations of slavery.”—Lisa Gail Collins, author of Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt
“A lyrical, witty, and incisive work that exposes the absurdity of the purported racial expertise claimed by elite white Charlestonians. Young shows how their distorted narratives about enslaved people persist to this day.”—Sharla M. Fett, author of Recaptured Africans: Surviving Slave Ships, Detention, and Dislocation in the Final Years of the Slave Trade
Jason R. Young is professor of history at the University of Michigan.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781469694344 |
| ISBN 10 | 1469694344 |
| Title | The Mask of Memory |
| Author | Jason R Young |
| Series | Boundless South |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | The University of North Carolina Press |
| Year published | 2026-05-26 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |