Q4

[zee.brad]

I chose ans C with confident since I noticed that in line 20, those white writers "comment favorably", that was before "Jubliee Songs" was introduced, so I feel like it is not necessary to Europeanize those songs in order to be accepted by white writers. That's why ans C totally makes sense to me....however the right ans choice is B, why is that?

[ohthatpatrick]

I follow your logic for how lines 19-21 almost seem to support the 2ND half of (C). The fact that northern White writers liked the sorrow songs before the songs got Europeanized shows that the songs didn't HAVE to be Europeanized in order for northern White writers to like them.

That's not quite what the 2nd half of (C) says, but the more important part of (C) that's broken/unsupported is the 1st half.

(C) is claiming that African American tradition dictated that all "sorrow songs" be Europeanized.

Say what? Why would African American tradition insist that traditional African American songs be Europeanized?

There's nothing in the passage to support that first half of (C).

It goes against common sense to think that African Americans forced African Americans to Europeanize sorrow songs.

It makes much more sense to think that the majority culture Europeanized the African American songs before fully accepting them.

Ultimately, the only language in the passage that deals with a requirement to Europeanize the songs is line 29-32. This sentence doesn't pin the requirement on either Whites or Blacks.

With (B), we can support White writers' earlier appreciation of these songs with 19-21. We can support the idea that Europeanized versions were preferred after the Civil War with lines 17-19 (as well as 29-32). We can support 'contrast' with the word 'But' in line 23.

The author is saying that white writers initially responded favorably to the authentic "sorrow songs", but by 1916, those songs had been adapted for mass consumption. This is what leads into lines 29-32.

For these types of questions, make sure you can match up all the language in the answer choice with line references from the passage.

Hope this helps.

[hyl387]

I follow your logic for how lines 19-21 almost seem to support the 2ND half of (C). The fact that northern White writers liked the sorrow songs before the songs got Europeanized shows that the songs didn't HAVE to be Europeanized in order for northern White writers to like them.

That's not quite what the 2nd half of (C) says, but the more important part of (C) that's broken/unsupported is the 1st half.

(C) is claiming that African American tradition dictated that all "sorrow songs" be Europeanized.

Say what? Why would African American tradition insist that traditional African American songs be Europeanized?

There's nothing in the passage to support that first half of (C).

It goes against common sense to think that African Americans forced African Americans to Europeanize sorrow songs.

Starting from line 14, it states that "it might be pointed out that... the songs... had been Europeanized to make them acceptable within these African American traditions after the civil war." Does it show any support for the first part of answer choice C?
I was about to put down answer B before I picked up this sentence, and then I put down C instead.

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, good call.

That line reference does seem to imply that Blacks themselves may have been Europeanizing the sorrow songs. Although the sentence could also mean that other people Europeanized the songs and "within the tradition" is just saying that "Given that we know these songs came from a tradition of slavery, we needed to tweak them so that we wouldn't feel so bad singing them." I'm somewhat confused by how that sentence is meant to be interpreted.

However, the second part of (C) is too extreme to be justified, that the pressure to Europeanize had NOTHING to do with the literary standards or attitudes of White writers.

It also kinda offends common sense. It just doesn't make sense that African Americans would develop their own internal tradition of Europeanizing their cultural expressions; it makes way more sense that they would do so knowing that that would allow them to be better received by the White audience.

(C), even if true, also doesn't really answer the question. The northern White writers aren't brought up in order to show "See, white people liked this music the way it was."

Rather, this sentence follows the claim that sorrow songs were Europeanized after the Civil War. The White writers are brought up because in 1862, during the Civil War, these songs were enjoyed in their authentic form. Then, the "But by 1916" sentence is reinforcing that the songs had been Europeanized to make them acceptable.