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Jonathan Branden Mythical Bodies, Colonial Ideologies : Josephine Baker and Her Public Image Josephine Baker—dancer, singer, and occasional film actress—is widely considered one of twentieth-century France’s greatest superstars. An African-American, she epitomized French colonial conceptions of the primitive, exotic Other. A wide breadth of work on Baker’s performances exists, yet little investigates how “Josephine Baker” existed as a visual signifying system. This project addresses that void by applying Roland Barthes’s theory of myth to Baker as a test case. I argue that widely available representations of Baker’s body served as a mythical space for articulating colonial ideologies of white male superiority. I contextualize Baker’s image within what Michel Foucault would call photographic and spectatorial “truth,” and propose a definition of “public image” specific to stars. I then investigate four representations of her body: painted/drawn abstract representations, her banana skirt, her hair, and her residence/resort Château des Milandes. The discussion will then close with reflections on why Baker’s public image as myth remains relevant today.
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