User:Radzsoleil/new sandbox

ORIGINAL TEXT: The word negrophilia is derived from the French négrophilie that means love of the negro. It was a term that avant-garde artists used amongst themselves to describe their fetishization of Black culture. NEW TEXT: It's origins were concurrent with art movements such as surrealism and Dadaism in the late nineteenth century. ORIGINAL TEXT: Sources of inspiration originally were inanimate African art objects (l'art nègre) NEW TEXT: such as masks and wooden carvings that found their way into Paris's flea markets and galleries alike (products of France's colonial exploitation), which inspired artworks such as Picasso's Les Demoiselles d' Avignon. Equally of interest to avant-garde creators were live arts such as dance, music and theatrical performances by Black artists, as evidenced by the popularity of comic artist Chocolat  and the musical review Les Heureux Nègres (1902)   many of whom were ex-soldiers remaining in European cities after World War I, who had no choice but to entertain as a source of income.

Factors/ Ideas influencing the emergence of Négrophilia.

NEW TEXT: What began as artistic interest widened to a society-wide, mass fetish in France post World War I. An entire generation of youth was lost in La Grande Guerre. The violence and loss witnessed in Europe, in particular in France, by those who survived challenged the conviction of the superiority of Western civilization fostered during the age of Enlightenment, which also fuelled questions on the exploitative effects of colonialism. French society was looking for alternative ideologies, and the exotic, "primitive" cultures of French colonies, erstwhile and current, were seen as alternatives to cold capitalism and modernity. The post-war ideological vacuum thus fed of earlier artistic movements centered around primitivism. Simultaneously, the arrival of numerous African and African-American soldiers during the war years, and their subsequent decision to return to or remain in post-war France, was significant to the pervasiveness of Negrophilia in French society. ORIGINAL TEXT:  The During 1920–1930s Paris, negrophilia was a craze to collect African art, to listen to jazz, and to dance the Charleston, the Lindy Hop or the Black Bottom, were signs of being modern and fashionable. Perhaps the most popular revue and entertainer during this time was La Revue Nègre (1925) starring Josephine Baker.

Concurrent movements and Opposing ideas

- Négrophilia was a metropolitan movement that also elicited opposition from parts of French society. The combination of African primitive music and American popular culture through presentations like La Revue Nègre, was a threat to refined French tastes. Not all Parisians welcomed incoming foreigners in the inter war years- they were seen as competition for employment opportunities in a recovering economy, nor was Paris free from racism.

- Dissenting voices were strengthening in the French colonies. An example : Association Panafricaine in 1921 post the Pan-African Congress. Soldiers from French colonies who fought on behalf of France during the Great War were voicing demands for citizenship and equality, challenging French colonial power.