DOCSLIB.ORG

Magical Negro in Marvel Cinematic Universe Master’S Diploma Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Magical Negro in Marvel Cinematic Universe Master’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Tereza Menšíková Magical Negro in Marvel Cinematic Universe Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. 2018 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. for his valuable advice and all the resources he provided me with. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6 2. African Americans in the United States of America .......................................................... 9 3. African Americans in Film ............................................................................................... 12 3.1 Seemingly Positive Stereotypes .................................................................................. 13 3.2 Reshaping of Old Stereotypes ..................................................................................... 14 3.2.1 Moral Virtue ........................................................................................................ 16 3.2.2 Assistance to the White World ............................................................................ 17 3.2.3 Magic and Folk Wisdom ...................................................................................... 20 3.2.4 Relationship to the White Protagonist ................................................................. 21 3.2.5 Desexualization .................................................................................................... 22 3.2.6 Abrupt Disappearances ........................................................................................ 24 4. Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Magical Negro ........................................................ 26 4.1 Marvel Cinematic Universe ........................................................................................ 26 4.2 Choice of Films ........................................................................................................... 28 4.2.1 Iron Man .............................................................................................................. 29 4.2.2 Iron Man 2 ........................................................................................................... 34 4.2.3 Thor ...................................................................................................................... 36 4.2.4 Captain America: The First Avenger ................................................................... 40 4.2.5 Marvel’s The Avengers ........................................................................................ 44 4.2.6 Iron Man 3 ........................................................................................................... 46 4.2.7 Thor: The Dark World ......................................................................................... 48 4.2.8 Captain America: The Winter Soldier ................................................................. 51 4.2.9 Avengers: Age of Ultron ...................................................................................... 55 4.2.10 Captain America: Civil War .............................................................................. 58 4.2.11 Doctor Strange ................................................................................................... 62 4.2.12 Thor: Ragnarok .................................................................................................. 64 4.3 Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Alteration to the Magical Negro ................................. 67 4.3.1 ‘Traditional’ Magical Negro ................................................................................ 68 4.3.2 ‘Other’ as the Magical Negro .............................................................................. 70 4.3.3 Black Buddy ........................................................................................................ 72 4.3.4 Black Panther ....................................................................................................... 73 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 75 6. Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 78 7. Resumé .............................................................................................................................. 84 7.1 English Resumé .......................................................................................................... 84 7.2 České resumé .............................................................................................................. 85 1. Introduction This thesis focuses on Marvel Cinematic Universe, a series of superhero blockbuster films produced by the United State-based Marvel Studios, and discusses the way these films portray African Americans and incorporate the Magical Negro stereotype. Film watching and going to the cinema represents a popular pastime in the United States of America; Matthew W. Hughey argues that the average American spends around 13 hours a year in the cinema with half of the adult population watching at least one film per month, the frequency rises to one film a week for younger audiences aged nine to seventeen years (“Racializing Redemption, Reproducing Racism”, 752). Furthermore, Clint Wilson II and Felix Gutiérrez describe the United States as “a media-dominated society” in which all “depend on the media communication to portray and define those things that [they] have not personally experienced for [themselves]” (35). The use of racial stereotypes, such as the Magical Negro, might thus lead to serious social consequences in understanding racial relations and African Americans in general. Filmgoers are well aware that the films depict fictional characters and their fully fictional lives, especially when it comes to superhero movies full of extra-terrestrials, super humans, extremely smart scientists inventing a new piece of technology overnight, there is no doubt that this part of the depicted world is just a product of authors’ imagination, not their personal experience. Nonetheless, in most cases of Marvel Cinematic Universe, they take place in America. The world impacted by these unrealistic characters is presented as the very world what American audiences are familiar with. It becomes even more important since, as John Iceland and Gregory Sharp interpret the results of 2010 census that “white isolation is considerably higher that the isolation experienced by other racial/ethnic 6 groups” (11). Hughey argues that these segregated whites then do not have any in-depth experience with African Americans (“Cinethetic Racism” 547), they thus shape their understanding based on the depictions of African Americans in media, and white people who consume these depiction eventually “think they know Blacks and their actual status because of the roles played while acting” (Glenn and Cunningham 137). Therefore, it becomes essential to identify racial stereotypes because they might fill in the vacuum of real experience and result in distorted whites’ image of social reality. Furthermore, provided the primary role of the film is to entertain, not to provide accurate information (Wilson II and Gutiérrez 36), viewer might fail to identify how the images consumed influence shape their views. The thesis is divided into two major parts; the first part focuses on American society and the views on race, and how mainstream film reflects this understanding. It also discusses filmic representation of African Americans with the emphasis on the Magical Negro stereotype. Since the stereotype results from ongoing development, the thesis also focuses on ‘positive’ stereotypes. The discussion of the Magical Negro stereotype later on is then based on Cerise L. Glenn and Landra J. Cunnigham’s article “The Power of Black Magic: The Magical Negro and White Salvation in Film” and Matthew W. Hughey’s “Cinethetic Racism: White Redemption and Black Stereotypes in ‘Magical Negro’ Films” in which the authors discuss how Magical Negro manifest themselves in various films and the implications behind the stereotype. The second part focuses on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Thor: Ragnarok. It discusses the Black character 7 that appear in these film with the focus on their relationship toward the white protagonists and their place in the hierarchy in the films. It also compares the filmic depiction of the original comic books, however, since film contain significant alteration to the original storyline, the emphasis is put on the film themselves. The analysis aims to categorize the characters and suggest implication of the use of the respective categories. Provided the fact that Marvel Cinematic Universe focuses on commercial success and therefore mainstream audiences, the thesis focuses on the hypothesis that Marvel films do not challenge nowadays’ views on race and use the Magical Negro
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Jazz and the Cultural Transformation of America in the 1920S
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2003 Jazz and the cultural transformation of America in the 1920s Courtney Patterson Carney Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Carney, Courtney Patterson, "Jazz and the cultural transformation of America in the 1920s" (2003). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 176. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/176 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. JAZZ AND THE CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA IN THE 1920S A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Courtney Patterson Carney B.A., Baylor University, 1996 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1998 December 2003 For Big ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The real truth about it is no one gets it right The real truth about it is we’re all supposed to try1 Over the course of the last few years I have been in contact with a long list of people, many of whom have had some impact on this dissertation. At the University of Chicago, Deborah Gillaspie and Ray Gadke helped immensely by guiding me through the Chicago Jazz Archive.
    [Show full text]
  • Club Add 2 Page Designoct07.Pub
    H M. ADVS. HULK V. 1 collects #1-4, $7 H M. ADVS FF V. 7 SILVER SURFER collects #25-28, $7 H IRR. ANT-MAN V. 2 DIGEST collects #7-12,, $10 H POWERS DEF. HC V. 2 H ULT FF V. 9 SILVER SURFER collects #12-24, $30 collects #42-46, $14 H C RIMINAL V. 2 LAWLESS H ULTIMATE VISON TP collects #6-10, $15 collects #0-5, $15 H SPIDEY FAMILY UNTOLD TALES H UNCLE X-MEN EXTREMISTS collects Spidey Family $5 collects #487-491, $14 Cut (Original Graphic Novel) H AVENGERS BIZARRE ADVS H X-MEN MARAUDERS TP The latest addition to the Dark Horse horror line is this chilling OGN from writer and collects Marvel Advs. Avengers, $5 collects #200-204, $15 Mike Richardson (The Secret). 20-something Meagan Walters regains consciousness H H NEW X-MEN v5 and finds herself locked in an empty room of an old house. She's bleeding from the IRON MAN HULK back of her head, and has no memory of where the wound came from-she'd been at a collects Marvel Advs.. Hulk & Tony , $5 collects #37-43, $18 club with some friends . left angrily . was she abducted? H SPIDEY BLACK COSTUME H NEW EXCALIBUR V. 3 ETERNITY collects Back in Black $5 collects #16-24, $25 (on-going) H The End League H X-MEN 1ST CLASS TOMORROW NOVA V. 1 ANNIHILATION A thematic merging of The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen, The End League follows collects #1-8, $5 collects #1-7, $18 a cast of the last remaining supermen and women as they embark on a desperate and H SPIDEY POWER PACK H HEROES FOR HIRE V.
    [Show full text]
  • Treacherous 'Saracens' and Integrated Muslims
    TREACHEROUS ‘SARACENS’ AND INTEGRATED MUSLIMS: THE ISLAMIC OUTLAW IN ROBIN HOOD’S BAND AND THE RE-IMAGINING OF ENGLISH IDENTITY, 1800 TO THE PRESENT 1 ERIC MARTONE Stony Brook University [email protected] 53 In a recent Associated Press article on the impending decay of Sherwood Forest, a director of the conservancy forestry commission remarked, “If you ask someone to think of something typically English or British, they think of the Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood… They are part of our national identity” (Schuman 2007: 1). As this quote suggests, Robin Hood has become an integral component of what it means to be English. Yet the solidification of Robin Hood as a national symbol only dates from the 19 th century. The Robin Hood legend is an evolving narrative. Each generation has been free to appropriate Robin Hood for its own purposes and to graft elements of its contemporary society onto Robin’s medieval world. In this process, modern society has re-imagined the past to suit various needs. One of the needs for which Robin Hood has been re-imagined during late modern history has been the refashioning of English identity. What it means to be English has not been static, but rather in a constant state of revision during the past two centuries. Therefore, Robin Hood has been adjusted accordingly. Fictional narratives erase the incongruities through which national identity was formed into a linear and seemingly inevitable progression, thereby fashioning modern national consciousness. As social scientist Etiénne Balibar argues, the “formation of the nation thus appears as the fulfillment of a ‘project’ stretching over centuries, in which there are different stages and moments of coming to self-awareness” (1991: 86).
    [Show full text]
  • Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Patricia R
    Ursinus College Digital Commons @ Ursinus College English Faculty Publications English Department 6-9-2010 Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Patricia R. Schroeder Ursinus College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_fac Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Studies Commons, Ethnomusicology Commons, Music Performance Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits oy u. Recommended Citation Schroeder, Patricia R., "Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race" (2010). English Faculty Publications. 4. https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/english_fac/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English Department at Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Ursinus College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Passing for Black: Coon Songs and the Performance of Race Until recently, scholars exploring blackface minstrelsy or the accompanying “coon song craze” of the 1890s have felt the need to apologize, either for the demeaning stereotypes of African Americans embedded in the art forms or for their own interest in studying the phenomena. Robert Toll, one of the first critics to examine minstrelsy seriously, was so appalled by its inherent racism that he focused his 1974 work primarily on debunking the stereotypes; Sam Dennison, another pioneer, did likewise with coon songs. Richard Martin and David Wondrich claim of minstrelsy that “the roots of every strain of American music—ragtime, jazz, the blues, country music, soul, rock and roll, even hip-hop—reach down through its reeking soil” (5).
    [Show full text]
  • Sinatra & Basie & Amos & Andy
    e-misférica 5.2: Race and its Others (December 2008) www.hemisferica.org “You Make Me Feel So Young”: Sinatra & Basie & Amos & Andy by Eric Lott | University of Virginia In 1965, Frank Sinatra turned 50. In a Las Vegas engagement early the next year at the Sands Hotel, he made much of this fact, turning the entire performance—captured in the classic recording Sinatra at the Sands (1966)—into a meditation on aging, artistry, and maturity, punctuated by such key songs as “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “The September of My Years,” and “It Was a Very Good Year” (Sinatra 1966). Not only have few commentators noticed this, they also haven’t noticed that Sinatra’s way of negotiating the reality of age depended on a series of masks—blackface mostly, but also street Italianness and other guises. Though the Count Basie band backed him on these dates, Sinatra deployed Amos ‘n’ Andy shtick (lots of it) to vivify his persona; mocking Sammy Davis Jr. even as he adopted the speech patterns and vocal mannerisms of blacking up, he maneuvered around the threat of decrepitude and remasculinized himself in recognizably Rat-Pack ways. Sinatra’s Italian accents depended on an imagined blackness both mocked and ghosted in the exemplary performances of Sinatra at the Sands. Sinatra sings superbly all across the record, rooting his performance in an aura of affection and intimacy from his very first words (“How did all these people get in my room?”). “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Jilly’s West,” he says, playing with a persona (habitué of the famous 52nd Street New York bar Jilly’s Saloon) that by 1965 had nearly run its course.
    [Show full text]
  • (“Spider-Man”) Cr
    PRIVILEGED ATTORNEY-CLIENT COMMUNICATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SECOND AMENDED AND RESTATED LICENSE AGREEMENT (“SPIDER-MAN”) CREATIVE ISSUES This memo summarizes certain terms of the Second Amended and Restated License Agreement (“Spider-Man”) between SPE and Marvel, effective September 15, 2011 (the “Agreement”). 1. CHARACTERS AND OTHER CREATIVE ELEMENTS: a. Exclusive to SPE: . The “Spider-Man” character, “Peter Parker” and essentially all existing and future alternate versions, iterations, and alter egos of the “Spider- Man” character. All fictional characters, places structures, businesses, groups, or other entities or elements (collectively, “Creative Elements”) that are listed on the attached Schedule 6. All existing (as of 9/15/11) characters and other Creative Elements that are “Primarily Associated With” Spider-Man but were “Inadvertently Omitted” from Schedule 6. The Agreement contains detailed definitions of these terms, but they basically conform to common-sense meanings. If SPE and Marvel cannot agree as to whether a character or other creative element is Primarily Associated With Spider-Man and/or were Inadvertently Omitted, the matter will be determined by expedited arbitration. All newly created (after 9/15/11) characters and other Creative Elements that first appear in a work that is titled or branded with “Spider-Man” or in which “Spider-Man” is the main protagonist (but not including any team- up work featuring both Spider-Man and another major Marvel character that isn’t part of the Spider-Man Property). The origin story, secret identities, alter egos, powers, costumes, equipment, and other elements of, or associated with, Spider-Man and the other Creative Elements covered above. The story lines of individual Marvel comic books and other works in which Spider-Man or other characters granted to SPE appear, subject to Marvel confirming ownership.
    [Show full text]
  • Blackface: a Reclamation of Beauty, Power, and Narrative April 20 – June 15, 2019 Exhibition Essay - Black Face: It Ain’T About the Cork by Halima Taha
    Blackface: A Reclamation of Beauty, Power, and Narrative April 20 – June 15, 2019 Exhibition Essay - Black Face: It Ain’t About the Cork by Halima Taha Blackface: It Ain’t About the Cork c 2019 Halima Taha Galeriemyrtis.net/blackface Black Face: It Ain’t About the Cork Currently ‘blackface’ has been used to describe a white adult performing a nauseatingly racist caricature of a black person; to a pair of pre-teen girls who never heard the word ‘minstrelsy’ when experimenting with costume makeup at a sleep over-- yet ‘blackfaced’ faces continue to be unsettling. Since the 19th century a montage of caricaturized images of black and brown faces, from movies, books, cartoons and posters have been ever present in the memories of all American children. Images of the coon, mammy, buck, sambo, pick-a-ninny and blackface characters, portrayed in subservient roles and mocking caricatures include images from Aunt Jemima at breakfast, to the1930’s Little Rascals, Shirley Temple in The Littlest Rebel, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in blackface on Saturday morning TV; to Uncle Ben staring from the cupboard-- all reinforced the demeaning representations of African Americans created to promote American white supremacy. The promotion of this ideal perpetuates the systemic suppression and suffocation of the black being. For many African Americans these images of themselves evoke an arc of emotions including: anger, sadness confusion, hurt--invisibility and shame. In 1830 Thomas Dartmouth Rice known as the “Father of Minstrelsy” developed a character named Jim Crow after watching enslaved Africans and their descendants reenacting African storytelling traditions that included folktales about tricksters, usually in the form of animals.
    [Show full text]
  • PEGODA-DISSERTATION-2016.Pdf (3.234Mb)
    © Copyright by Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS ____________________________ Andrew Joseph Pegoda APPROVED: ____________________________ Linda Reed, Ph.D. Committee Chair ____________________________ Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D. ____________________________ Richard Mizelle, Ph.D. ____________________________ Barbara Hales, Ph.D. University of Houston-Clear Lake ____________________________ Steven G. Craig, Ph.D. Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Department of Economics ii “IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THE PAST, CHANGE IT”: THE REEL CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION, HISTORICAL MEMORY, AND THE MAKING OF UTOPIAN PASTS _______________ An Abstract of A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History University of Houston _______________ In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________ By Andrew Joseph Pegoda December, 2016 ABSTRACT Historians have continued to expand the available literature on the Civil Rights Revolution, an unprecedented social movement during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s that aimed to codify basic human and civil rights for individuals racialized as Black, by further developing its cast of characters, challenging its geographical and temporal boundaries, and by comparing it to other social movements both inside and outside of the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lawyer As Superhero: How Marvel Comics' Daredevil Depicts
    Barry University School of Law Digital Commons @ Barry Law Faculty Scholarship Spring 5-2019 The Lawyer as Superhero: How Marvel Comics' Daredevil Depicts the American Court System and Legal Practice Louis Michael Rosen Barry University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lawpublications.barry.edu/facultyscholarship Part of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, and the Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons Recommended Citation 47 Capital U. L. Rev. 379 (2019) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Barry Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Barry Law. THE LAWYER AS SUPERHERO: HOW MARVEL COMICS’ DAREDEVIL DEPICTS THE AMERICAN COURT SYSTEM AND LEGAL PRACTICE LOUIS MICHAEL ROSEN* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 380 II. BACKGROUND: POPULAR CULTURE AND THE LAW THEORIES ....... 387 III. DAREDEVIL––THE STORY SO FAR ............................................... 391 A. Daredevil in the Sights of Frank Miller ....................................... 391 B. Daredevil Through the Eyes of Brian Michael Bendis ................ 395 C. Daredevil’s Journey to Redemption by David Hine .................... 402 D. Daredevil Goes Public, by Mark Waid ........................................ 406 IV. DAREDEVIL’S FRESH START AND BIGGEST CASE EVER, BY CHARLES SOULE ...................................................................................... 417 V. CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 430 Copyright © 2019, Louis Michael Rosen. * Louis Michael Rosen is a Reference Librarian and Associate Professor of Law Library at Barry University School of Law in Orlando, Florida. He would like to thank Professor Taylor Simpson-Wood, his mentor, ally, advocate, cheerleader, and ever-patient editor as he wrote this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Eddie Murphy in the Cut: Race, Class, Culture, and 1980S Film Comedy
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University African-American Studies Theses Department of African-American Studies 5-10-2019 Eddie Murphy In The Cut: Race, Class, Culture, And 1980s Film Comedy Gail A. McFarland Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/aas_theses Recommended Citation McFarland, Gail A., "Eddie Murphy In The Cut: Race, Class, Culture, And 1980s Film Comedy." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2019. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/aas_theses/59 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of African-American Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in African-American Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EDDIE MURPHY IN THE CUT: RACE, CLASS, CULTURE, AND 1980S FILM COMEDY by GAIL A. MCFARLAND Under the Direction of Lia T. Bascomb, PhD ABSTRACT Race, class, and politics in film comedy have been debated in the field of African American culture and aesthetics, with scholars and filmmakers arguing the merits of narrative space without adequately addressing the issue of subversive agency of aesthetic expression by black film comedians. With special attention to the 1980-1989 work of comedian Eddie Murphy, this study will look at the film and television work found in this moment as an incisive cut in traditional Hollywood industry and narrative practices in order to show black comedic agency through aesthetic and cinematic narrative subversion. Through close examination of the film, Beverly Hills Cop (Brest, 1984), this project works to shed new light on the cinematic and standup trickster influences of comedy, and the little recognized existence of the 1980s as a decade that defines a base period for chronicling and inspecting the black aesthetic narrative subversion of American film comedy.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 27Th Annual Poets House Showcase Exhibition Catalog
    2019 27th Annual Poets House Showcase Exhibition Catalog Poets House | 10 River Terrace | New York, NY 10282 | poetshouse.org ELCOME to the 2019 Poets House Showcase, our annual, all-inclusive exhibition of the most recent poetry books, chapbooks, broadsides, artists’ books, and multimedia works published in the United States and abroad. This year marks the 27th anniversary of the Poets House Showcase and features over 3,300 books from more than 800 different presses and publishers. For 27 years, the Showcase has helped to keep our collection Wcurrent and relevant, building one of the most extensive collections of poetry in our nation—an expansive record of the poetry of our time, freely available and open to all. Building the Exhibit and the Poets House Library Collection Every year, Poets House invites poets and publishers to participate in the annual Showcase by donating copies of poetry titles released since January of the previous year. This year’s exhibit highlights poetry titles published in 2018 and the first part of 2019. Books have been contributed by the entire poetry community, from the publishers who send on their titles as they’re released, to the poets who mail us signed copies of their newest books, to library visitors donating books when they visit us. Every newly published book is welcomed, appreciated, and featured in the Showcase. The Poets House Showcase is the mechanism through which we build our library: a comprehensive, inclusive collection of over 70,000 poetry works, all free and open to the public. To make it as extensive as possible, we reach out to as many poetry communities and producers as we can, bringing together poetic voices of all kinds to meet the different needs and interests of our many library patrons.
    [Show full text]
  • I Was a Teenage Negro! Blackface As a Vehicle of White Liberalism in Finian's Rainbow
    I Was a Teenage Negro! Blackface as a Vehicle of White Liberalism in Finian's Rainbow Russell Peterson Obviously we hope you will enjoy your evening with us, but before the curtain goes up we would like to forewarn you about what you will see. Finian s Rainbow is a joyous musical cel­ ebrating life, love, and the magic that lives in each of us, but it is also something more. Produced in 1947, it was one of the American theater's first attempts to challenge racism and big­ otry. With the two-edged sword of ridicule and laughter it punctured the stereotypes that corrupted America. In doing so it created something of a stereotype itself. If it seems at times that our cast makes fun of racial or social groups, it is only that we wish to expose and deride the bigotry that still would gain a hearing in our hearts. —program note from Edison Jun­ ior High School's (Sioux Falls, SD) 1974 production of Finian's Rainbow I might as well confess right up front that this article's title is a bit of a tease. While I did play a sharecropper in Edison Junior High's 1974 production of Finian s Rainbow, I was as white onstage as I was (and am) off. In this case, however, color-coordination of actor and role was less a matter of race-appro­ priate casting than of directorial whim. Allow me to explain. 0026-3079/2006/4703/4-035$2.50/0 American Studies, 47:3/4 (Fall-Winter 2006): 35-60 35 36 Russell Peterson Finian was a big Broadway hit in 1947.
    [Show full text]