Matrices of ‘Love and Theft’: Joan Baez Imitates Bob Dylan

Abstract This article uses Joan Baez's impersonations of Bob Dylan from the mid-1960s to beginning twenty-first century as performances where multiple fields complementary discourse converge. The is organized in three parts. first part addresses musical details acts mimicry and their uncanny ability summon Dylan's predecessors. second considers context identity, specifically race asymmetrical power relations history American popular music. third final section analyses her imitations gender reproductive labour, focusing on way various media have shaped persona relationship Dylan. engages critical theoretical work informed by psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory, Marxist feminism.