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Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans? Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities in Spike Lee's 'When The Levees Broke'

This essay forms part of the overall output for the three-year HERA-funded research project: “Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities.” Along with BCU colleague Andrew Dubber, the project involves scholars from the Universities of Salford, Amsterdam, Stavanger, Graz, and Copenhagen, and focuses on the role of national identity in the conceptualization and international spread of jazz cultures within Europe. This project has aimed to reframe the subject of jazz history from a transnational or global perspective, and its impact is evident from the large number of papers presented at project-led research events that develop this perspective and cite research by members of the project team. In this aspect of the research, I focus on issues of the sonic origins and nationalist practices identified with jazz. Aspects of this research have been presented at conferences in the UK (2011), Denmark (2011), and the Netherlands (2011). A large part of this project involves knowledge transfer in a series of public events—European-wide jazz festivals, music industry events, policy papers, and cultural symposia. The research was carried out at the British Library, the Columbia University Library, New York, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The larger aim of the article, and the HERA project as a whole, is to develop new modes of thinking and research paradigms in jazz studies, especially through engagement with theories and methodologies within media and cultural studies, screen studies and cultural theory. The article is part of a special issue on jazz and nationalism and it will form the basis of a chapter in a forthcoming monograph for Routledge USA as part of their new transnational studies in jazz series.