Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was a dancer, singer, actress, author, politician, militant, and philanthropist, whose images and cultural legacy have survived beyond the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Neither an exercise in postmodern deconstruction nor simple biography, Josephine Baker in Art and Life presents a critical cultural study of the life and art of the Franco-American performer whose appearances as the savage dancer Fatou shocked the world. Although the study remains firmly anchored in Josephine Baker’s life and times, presenting and challenging carefully researched biographical facts, it also offers in-depth analyses of the images that she constructed and advanced. Bennetta Jules-Rosette explores Baker’s far-ranging and dynamic career from a sociological and cultural perspective, using the tools of sociosemiotics to excavate the narratives, images, and representations that trace the story of her life and fit together as a cultural production. "Baker enthusiasts will be grateful for Jules-Rosette's challenges to other studies of Baker's life and legend. . . . It deserves a wide general readership and a significant place in the canon of Franco-American cultural studies and twentieth century French and American history."-- Women's Review of Books Beyond biography: a legendary performer’s legacy of symbolism Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was a dancer, singer, actress, author, politician, militant, and philanthropist, whose images and cultural legacy have survived beyond the hundredth anniversary of her birth. Neither an exercise in postmodern deconstruction nor simple biography, Josephine Baker in Art and Life presents a critical cultural study of the life and art of the Franco-American performer whose appearances as the savage dancer Fatou shocked the world. Although the study remains firmly anchored in Josephine Baker’s life and times, presenting and challenging carefully researched biographical facts, it also offers in-depth analyses of the images that she constructed and advanced. Bennetta Jules-Rosette explores Baker’s far-ranging and dynamic career from a sociological and cultural perspective, using the tools of sociosemiotics to excavate the narratives, images, and representations that trace the story of her life and fit together as a cultural production. Bennetta Jules-Rosette is a professor of sociology and the director of African and African-American Studies at the University of California, San Diego.  She is the author of a number of books including Black Paris, African Apostles, and The Messages of Tourist Art. Josephine Baker in Art and Life THE ICON AND THE IMAGE By Bennetta Jules-Rosette University of Illinois Press Copyright © 2007 Bennetta Jules-Rosette All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-252-07412-7 Contents List of Illustrations.............................................ixForeword: A Luminous Humanism, by Simon Njami.....................xiiPreface...........................................................xvAcknowledgments...................................................xviiPrologue..........................................................1Part 1: creating the image1. Touring with Baker's Image.....................................132. Opening Nights.................................................473. Celluloid Projections..........................................72Part 2: Living the dream4. Dress Rehearsals...............................................1275. Baker's Scripts................................................1556. Hues of the Rainbow in a Global Village........................184Part 3: changing the World7. Legendary Legionnaire..........................................2138. Echoes and Influences..........................................2439. Eternal Comeback...............................................268Chronology........................................................287Notes.............................................................297Bibliography......................................................327Discography.......................................................341Index.............................................................345 Prologue Josephine Baker's cultural legacy is still alive beyond the hundredth anniversary of her birth in 1906. It exists in live performances, art, photography, fashion, film, literature, and social activism. Baker mesmerized audiences during her lifetime and continues to attract and mystify biographers. Much recent scholarship on Baker has placed her in a pantheon of black feminist heroines, which often has produced a larger-than-life, one-dimensional image. Regardless of the reasons for such depictions, there is a need to remove Baker from reductive stereotypes and to humanize her legacy. This book explores the complex construction of Baker's multiple images in art and life. It is concerned with how art transforms social life, and how life imitates art. Although it presents and eval