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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

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its length (see figure 52). Finally, he gave the object a pair <strong>of</strong> unnaturally thick, rounded<br />

jowls. Gilpin had strong jowls by photographic accounts, but this exaggeration gave the<br />

Fig. 51. Front view <strong>of</strong> “Brutus” from Ralph Chesse’s The Emperor Jones. Photograph<br />

by the author. From the Detroit Institute <strong>of</strong> the Arts Collection (Detroit: DIA, 2003).<br />

object a more European, even imperial look, which incorporated the character’s delusions<br />

<strong>of</strong> grandeur into the corporal form <strong>of</strong> the character. Likewise, Chesse’s choice to<br />

increase the size and length <strong>of</strong> the neck, and to curve and thicken the eyebrows gave the<br />

object a striking vestige, suggesting both potency and perspicacity. The archetype was<br />

conditioned by the racializing qualities <strong>of</strong> blackface puppetry. Though the co-presence <strong>of</strong><br />

blackface aesthetics racialized the object with exaggeration, the overall image was that <strong>of</strong><br />

216

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