BOOK REVIEWS
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accessible to a vast audience and they should be viewed with as much criticism
as other representations despite the assumption that they somehow are more
authentic or genuine representations of the entertainer when they are articulated
through their voices or gaze. Actually, in spite of what they may or may not
represent, the author of this work is effective in deconstructing these
autobiographies to interrogate how these women saw themselves as black
female performers attempting to build careers as entertainers in view of the
social, political, and economic obstacles they stood to face in view of their
gender and race.
Dreher effectively demonstrates how the biography participates in
providing for and allowing for a close reading of the entertainer. With Lena
Home, Dreher states, “Home’s text lays bare a shrewd perception of the
insidious nature of the labels (that is, “star,” “symbol,” “the first Negro to”)
from the onset, Ʌѡ