4 Performing Savagery and Civility: The Subversive Nudity of Josephine Baker
Quasi-Slavery in Progressive America
American and French Attitudes toward Female Nudity
Baker’s (De)Colonizing Body in French Cinema
Baker’s Nudity for the American Body Politic
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Figure 1.1. “Madame C. J. Walker” (advertisement). Richmond Planet, December 19, 1908. Chronicling America, Library of Congress (advertisement) (accessed May 31, 2019).
Figure 1.2. “A Million Eyes Turned Upon It Daily: Madam C. J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower” (advertisement). Crisis 18, no. 6 (1919): 323. https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/civil-rights/crisis/1000-crisis-v18n06-w108.pdf (accessed May 31, 2019).
Figure 1.3. Madame C. J. Walker Building (National Historic Landmark, 1991), Indianapolis, USA. Private Collection.
Figure 2.1. “Coming to Pittsburgh: Madame E. Azalia Hackley, soprano; Retiring Song Recital and Demonstration on Voice Culture” (advertisement). Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), June 14, 1912. https://www.newspapers.com/image/33456657/ (accessed May 24, 2019).
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Figure 2.2. “Madam E. Azalia Hackley: The Greatest Queen of Song, of the Afro-American Race, Who Has Won Fame Throughout Europe and America.” Broad Ax (Salt Lake, UT), December 31, 1910. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024055/1910-12-31/ed-1/seq-5/ (accessed May 24, 2019).
Figure 3.1. Portrait of Meta Warrick Fuller. Courtesy of Dr. John L. Fuller, Trustee, The Meta Fuller Legacy.
Figure 3.2. In Memory of Mary Turner: As a Silent Protest Against Mob Violence (1919). Sculpture created by Meta Warrick Fuller. Courtesy of Dr. John L. Fuller, Trustee, The Meta Fuller Legacy. Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA.
Figure 3.3. Meta Warrick Fuller to the African American History, January 29, 1967. Courtesy of Dr. John L. Fuller, trustee, the Meta Fuller Legacy. ©Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
Figure 4.1. Photograph of Josephine Baker (1920s) as published in souvenir program for Tribute to Josephine Baker, sponsored by The Variety Club of New York. Waverly. Josephine Baker Collection of Clippings, 1927–1994. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Figure 4.2. Cover of the playbill for the stage production, Josephine Baker at the Prince Edward Theatre. 1933. Josephine Baker Collection of Clippings, 1927–1994. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
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I could not imagine publishing a book of my own when I entered into a Ph.D. course at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, four years ago just after failing to gain a thesis-based Ph.D. degree: I could not find my way out. This book is, in fact, the third dissertation-length thesis I have written in the past 20 years. Decades ago, I submitted a 200-page thesis just to finish a Ph.D. course (without being granted a degree), which took me four years. The thesis was about the family and community in Toni Morrison’s early works. Working as a college instructor, I wrote the second, which took me seven years to finish. It reviewed motherhood in women’s antebellum slave narratives. After I failed to gain the degree with that endeavor, I decided, this time, to enroll in a Ph.D. course again. Working as a full-time instructor, I started a new project at Tsukuba in 2015. I was nervous about studying alongside much younger students. The only goal I set on that first day at Tsukuba was to hone my academic research skills under the guidance of distinguished professors.
The four years at Tsukuba turned out to be more wonderful than I had expected. In a huge, rural—yet also very international—campus at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba, I spent an incredible time—the most exciting, inspiring, and fruitful time that I had ever experienced in my academic career. I am very much indebted to my advisor, Etsuko Taketani, whose expertise thrilled me whenever ←xi | xii→I visited her. She taught me the academic skills necessary for conducting research and writing a dissertation—the same skills she has mastered through her own research. During meetings in her office, she provided me with new insights about my writing without tearing my confidence to shreds and succinctly yet passionately explained how and why my writing had failed. Sometimes, I was too excited to go home, and I found myself studying at the university library late at night to improve my dissertation, remembering her comments one by one. Under her excellent guidance and continuous encouragement, I found that my dissertation was nearly finished in just over three years.
I also could not be more grateful to the three advisors on my dissertation committee, who have earnestly advised and devotedly mentored me throughout the examination process: Motoko Nakada, Kiyoko Magome, and Anne McKnight. They read my dissertation and provided me with feedback before the end of the summer break, which made it possible for me to make revisions before submitting the final draft. Their scholarly questions, insightful comments, and positive feedback kept encouraging me to make little improvements every day throughout the summer. Without such warm support from the committee members, I could not have finished this project.
My Kansai Gaidai University (KGU) community in Osaka, Japan, greatly assisted me in finishing this project. When I moved to KGU in the last year of my doctoral studies, I was still not sure whether I could complete my degree in one year in Osaka, 600 kilometers away from the Tsukuba campus. Fortunately, I had much support and encouragement from Yoshitaka Tanimoto, President, and Eiko Tanimoto, President of the Board of Trustees, as well as all from the KGU faculty and staff. Tetsuji Machida, Dean of the School of English Language and Communication, College of Foreign Studies, provided me with tremendous support, without which my project would not have succeeded. James Webb and David A. Eason, my colleagues who read my manuscript, provided me with thoughtful feedback and careful editorial advice. If I had not moved to KGU, I would not have had the time, energy, nor momentum necessary to complete this project.
My family remains my rock: Kazu, my husband, and my dear daughters, Miriu and Erina. We feel connected to each other despite each of us living separately in four cities in two countries: Tokyo, Osaka, and Sendai in Japan and Kelowna in Canada. I sincerely appreciate their generosity over the last two decades, which allowed me the time to be a dedicated student, teacher, wife, and mother. Their endearing words and smiles sustained me whenever I felt depressed or was in despair over my academic career.
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