Eric Lott on Bob Dylan's 'Love And Theft'

He's one of those rare people for whom cultural miscegenation is a spur to cultural newness and uniqueness.

Eric Lott is an American cultural critic, scholar, and author known for his work in the fields of literature, cultural studies, and race theory. He is most notably recognized for his influential book "Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class," published in 1993. "Love And Theft" is the thirty-first studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 2001.

The only word I've gotten on the issue is from Bob Dylan's publicist, who told a writer doing a piece on the relationship between Dylan's title and my book that Dylan "does not deny a connection" between them. Beyond that, he doesn't want to talk about it.

I don't know why Dylan declined an interview with me, but I'd guess it had something to do with imagining a tedious sit-down with a scholar-squirrel (Gore Vidal's term) who'd be asking a…