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Yella gal: Eartha Kitt’s racial modulations

2018; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0740770x.2018.1426200

1748-5819

Colleen Kim Daniher,

Latin American and Latino Studies

This article investigates mid-century singer/dancer/actor Eartha Kitt’s ambiguous racial aesthetics, which ran the gamut from Eastern and Western Oriental sound and embodiment in dance, Afro-Latina voicings in song, and feline impersonation. Borrowing a figure from music theory, the author calls this performative aesthetic strategy “racial modulation.” She argues that while Kitt’s staged modulations of the black/white “yella gal” into “international” registers subverted white audiences’ assumed access to Kitt’s performing body, it also forged intimacies and associations with Asia and Latin America – geographies that, at the height of Kitt’s career, were implicitly linked to both U.S. Cold War imperialism and Third World decolonizing movements.