The Black Masculine Paradigm Kendric Coleman Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Black Masculine Paradigm Kendric Coleman Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Kcolema@Lsu.Edu View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Louisiana State University Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 Power, money, and sex(uality): the Black Masculine Paradigm Kendric Coleman 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 English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Coleman, Kendric, "Power, money, and sex(uality): the Black Masculine Paradigm" (2005). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 337. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/337 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]. POWER, MONEY, AND SEX(UALITY): THE BLACK MASCULINE PARADIGM 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 English by Kendric Coleman B.A., Louisiana State University and A&M College, 1997 M.A., Louisiana State University and A&M College, 1999 May, 2005 i Table of Contents ABSTRACT . iii CHAPTER 1 CONTEXTUALIZING BLACK MASCULINITY: SCOPE, DEFINITION, AND SIGNIFICANCE. 1 Defining and Extending the Notion of “Cool Pose” . 2 Freedom of Movement and Politicization of the Black Male Body . 4 Synthesizing the Trickster/Bad-man Figure(s). 24 Building the BMP—Points of Analysis. .35 CHAPTER 2 THE POLITICIZED BLACK MALE CONSCIOUSNESS. 39 CHAPTER 3 PRESCRIPTIONS FOR BLACK MASCULINITY: LET’S GET CRUNK. 84 CHAPTER 4 BLACK MALE BONDING: MY NIGGA, MY BRUTHA, MY LUVA. 139 CHAPTER 5 TOWARD A CONCLUSION: MASCULINITY UNLEASHED. 179 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 186 VITA. 197 ii Abstract This study develops the Black Masculine Paradigm (BMP), a construct used to trace historically specific components that inform black masculinity and explores the physical and psychological defensive strategies employed by black men in Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promisedland, Nathan McCall’s Make Me Wanna Holler, and James Earl Hardy’s B-Boy Blues. Specifically, this project offers that power, money, and sex(uality) are located at the core of the BMP, and these social objectives are negotiated through politicization, prescribed masculinity, and heterosexuality. This project reads the politicization of the black male body through its presence in literature and film. Adding to work included by literary and cultural studies scholars, the study has social and psychological dimensions that suggest an alternate form of black masculinity as well. The study reveals that these strategies affect the black males’ economic, social and physical movement, and creates a corrupt national narrative that is informed and disrupted by racism. iii The worst part of the masculine scream is that the feminine ear can not hear our frequency. T.D. Jakes Chapter 1: Contextualizing Black Masculinity: Scope, Definition, and Significance This project develops the Black Masculine Paradigm (BMP), a construct I use to trace historically specific components that inform black masculinity in the U.S. First, I extend and further define what Richard Majors and Janet Billson refer to as “cool pose,” the physical and psychological defensive strategies employed by black men to maintain detachment in tense encounters, and I wed it to the effect of man’s limited economic, social and physical movement, and a corrupt national narrative informed and disrupted by racism. The notion of black masculinity that prevails in contemporary critical discourse focuses on the single components that make up black masculinity, particularly behavior and performance, and materialism. Specifically, I offer that power, money, and sex(uality) are located at the core of the BMP, and these social objectives are negotiated through the paradigm’s major components: freedom of movement and politics of the body. My project then reads the politicization of the black male body through its presence in literature and film. Adding to work included by literary and cultural studies scholars, my study has social and psychological dimensions that suggest an alternate mode of black 1 masculinity as well. Using the trickster and bad-man figure as archetypes of black masculinity, I read the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, and Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler to explore physical, social, and economic movement. Further, I use the films, Boyz’ N the Hood, and Menace II Society to demonstrate the importance of performance in black male self- representation. Finally, I employ the novels of Wright, Brown, McCall and James Hardy B-Boy Blues to read sexuality as a problematic design for masculinity. Defining and Extending the Notion of “Cool Pose” Majors and Billson’s theory of “cool pose” places black males on a collision course with white social institutions. They posit “being male and black has meant being psychologically castrated—rendered impotent in the economic, political, and social arenas that whites have historically dominated “(1). Of course, many black men define their manhood the same as white men do—as breadwinner, provider, procreator, and protector. However, because black men have not had consistent access to social capital they need in order to fulfill their dreams of masculinity, cool pose becomes a surrogate for masculinity, adopted mostly by young inner city black males, “that is used as a tool for hammering masculinity out of the bronze of their daily lives in 2 a restrictive society” (2). It consists of the physical—unique patterns of speech, walk, demeanor, dress, and psychological components—poise under pressure, the ability to maintain detachment from emotions and tense encounters; all of these act as “a defense to ward off the ill effects of racial oppression and social inequality” (2-3). “Cool pose” for some black males becomes more important than life itself, which explains the fact that African-American males die earlier and faster than white males from suicide, homicide, accidents, and stress-related illnesses; that black males are more deeply involved in criminal and delinquent activities; that they drop out of school or are suspended more often than white children; and that they have more volatile relationships with women. (2) Thus, cool pose can end in destruction, if black men cannot navigate through hegemonic social institutions. Essentially, cool pose is a coping mechanism that black men use to develop a distinct form of black male aesthetics, behaviors and actions that they see as essentially male, and/or as acting male. I argue that in contemporary America cool pose is an articulation of masculinity that synthesizes tropes of the trickster/bad-man figure, and this modified version of black manhood demonstrates the increasing importance and changing definitions of masculinity from slavery to the post-modern era. Majors and Billson trace various forms of cool pose to African Culture in which the people were in harmony (cool) with 3 nature. I posit that filtering cool pose through the lens of the trickster/bad-man figure reveals it as a definitive trickster trope, reconfiguring Majors and Billson’s limited construct that addresses ritualized sexuality, yet hardly considers heterosexuality as a masculine construct, nor addresses homophobia. Further, I use Maurice Wallace’s idea of black male specularity to examine the current placement of black men in the American national narrative. Integrating Wallace’s notion into my framework allows me to read masculine performance as internalized racism and as a coping strategy. The wide critical net I cast produces a more inclusive mapping of black masculinity. Freedom of Movement and Politicization of the Black Male Body Freedom of movement refers to the ways in which black men have been limited because of racism: physically, socially, and economically. Physical and social mobility refers to the limited restriction of blacks during slavery and segregation in which they could not utilize the same facilities as whites. This project positions racism as a restrictor of black males’ social mobility in American institutions. Economic movement, which greatly affects social mobility, refers to black men’s ability to achieve financial success and the false status it creates. As Christopher B. Booker’s I Will Wear No Chain! argues, the greatest obstacle for black men to overcome is the legacy of slavery and Jim 4 Crow. Because slavery took the place of family and responsibility, it forced black men to reconstruct their masculinity in terms of sexual prowess and materialism; yet, the modern world requires black men to overcome the social fallout of Jim Crow. Jabari Asim suggests that the social remains of Jim Crow cast a veil over black men’s attempts to confront current forms of inequities “within the context of an increasing globalized economy and polity” (i). Thus, as America’s wealth and ideas extend beyond its geographical border, the black voice is seldom heard. This silence emblematizes the remaining elements of Jim Crow within the educational and criminal justice system. Asim’s “Black Man Standing” implies
Recommended publications
  • Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South
    Antoni Górny Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South Abstract: The so-called blaxploitation genre – a brand of 1970s film-making designed to engage young Black urban viewers – has become synonymous with channeling the political energy of Black Power into larger-than-life Black characters beating “the [White] Man” in real-life urban settings. In spite of their urban focus, however, blaxploitation films repeatedly referenced an idea of the South whose origins lie in antebellum abolitionist propaganda. Developed across the history of American film, this idea became entangled in the post-war era with the Civil Rights struggle by way of the “race problem” film, which identified the South as “racist country,” the privileged site of “racial” injustice as social pathology.1 Recently revived in the widely acclaimed works of Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), the two modes of depicting the South put forth in blaxploitation and the “race problem” film continue to hold sway to this day. Yet, while the latter remains indelibly linked, even in this revised perspective, to the abolitionist vision of emancipation as the result of a struggle between idealized, plaintive Blacks and pathological, racist Whites, blaxploitation’s troping of the South as the fulfillment of grotesque White “racial” fantasies offers a more powerful and transformative means of addressing America’s “race problem.” Keywords: blaxploitation, American film, race and racism, slavery, abolitionism The year 2013 was a momentous one for “racial” imagery in Hollywood films. Around the turn of the year, Quentin Tarantino released Django Unchained, a sardonic action- film fantasy about an African slave winning back freedom – and his wife – from the hands of White slave-owners in the antebellum Deep South.
    [Show full text]
  • Making Mandingo: Racial Archetypes, Pornography, and Black Male Subjectivity
    Making Mandingo: Racial Archetypes, Pornography, and Black Male Subjectivity By Phillip Samuels © 2019 M.A., University of Kansas, 2007 B.A., Emporia State University, 2004 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Communication Studies and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Chair: Dr. Dorothy Pennington Dr. Scott Harris Dr. Beth Innocenti Dr. Jeffery Jarman Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks _____________________________ Dr. Robert McDonald Date Defended: 6 December 2019 ii Acceptance Page Making Mandingo: Racial Archetypes, Pornography, and Black Male Subjectivity The dissertation committee for Phillip Samuels certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Chair: Dr. Dorthy Pennington Date Approved: iii Abstract Mandingo is a reference to a longstanding myth in American culture, that black men have an unquenchable desire for white woman. I will argue that Mandingo is an example of a racial archetype. Racial archetypes are specific images of a long-standing stereotypes. Mandingo is one such archetype. Mandingo conjures up an entire history of the rhetoric of miscegenation. For some it is the excitement of the big black cock (BBC) and crossing the color line, but for most blacks it invokes images of lynching, slavery, and police brutality brought on by the fear of black men while at the same time trafficking in a prurient landscape of American racial and sexual relations. Whether through words, pictures or movies, the Mandingo has become a dominant archetype in the pantheon of the African American experience. Charting the Mandingo emergence and articulation is critical project to discern how these rhetorical markers are part of a larger mythic narrative.
    [Show full text]
  • Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South
    Antoni Górny Appalling! Terrifying! Wonderful! Blaxploitation and the Cinematic Image of the South Abstract: The so-called blaxploitation genre – a brand of 1970s film-making designed to engage young Black urban viewers – has become synonymous with channeling the political energy of Black Power into larger-than-life Black characters beating “the [White] Man” in real-life urban settings. In spite of their urban focus, however, blaxploitation films repeatedly referenced an idea of the South whose origins lie in antebellum abolitionist propaganda. Developed across the history of American film, this idea became entangled in the post-war era with the Civil Rights struggle by way of the “race problem” film, which identified the South as “racist country,” the privileged site of “racial” injustice as social pathology.1 Recently revived in the widely acclaimed works of Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained) and Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), the two modes of depicting the South put forth in blaxploitation and the “race problem” film continue to hold sway to this day. Yet, while the latter remains indelibly linked, even in this revised perspective, to the abolitionist vision of emancipation as the result of a struggle between idealized, plaintive Blacks and pathological, racist Whites, blaxploitation’s troping of the South as the fulfillment of grotesque White “racial” fantasies offers a more powerful and transformative means of addressing America’s “race problem.” Keywords: blaxploitation, American film, race and racism, slavery, abolitionism The year 2013 was a momentous one for “racial” imagery in Hollywood films. Around the turn of the year, Quentin Tarantino released Django Unchained, a sardonic action- film fantasy about an African slave winning back freedom – and his wife – from the hands of White slave-owners in the antebellum Deep South.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting
    FREE IN THOUGHT, FETTERED IN ACTION: ENSLAVED ADOLESCENT FEMALES IN THE SLAVE SOUTH By COURTNEY A. MOORE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Courtney A. Moore 2 To my parents, Brenda W. Moore and George Moore, my first teachers, and my wonderful family in North Carolina and Florida, my amazing village 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout the course of this process I have received the support of countless individuals who have tirelessly given of themselves to make my dream a reality. Professionally, many teachers and professors have shaped my intellectual growth, equipping me with the skills and confidence needed to excel academically. I would like to thank the faculty and staff at Southwood Elementary, Central Davidson Middle and Central Davidson High Schools, especially Ms. Dorothy Talbert. Since elementary school Ms. Talbert encouraged me to conquer my fears and move toward the wonderful opportunities life held, even up to her untimely passing this year she was a constant source of encouragement and cheer. I am also indebted to the Department of History at North Carolina Central University, specifically Drs. Carlton Wilson, Lydia Lindsey and Freddie Parker. Observing these amazing scholars, I learned professionalism, witnessed student-centered teaching at its best, and had the embers of my love for history erupt into an unquenchable fire as I learned of black men and women who impacted the world. My sincerest gratitude to the History Department and African American Studies Program faculty and staff at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dictionary Legend
    THE DICTIONARY The following list is a compilation of words and phrases that have been taken from a variety of sources that are utilized in the research and following of Street Gangs and Security Threat Groups. The information that is contained here is the most accurate and current that is presently available. If you are a recipient of this book, you are asked to review it and comment on its usefulness. If you have something that you feel should be included, please submit it so it may be added to future updates. Please note: the information here is to be used as an aid in the interpretation of Street Gangs and Security Threat Groups communication. Words and meanings change constantly. Compiled by the Woodman State Jail, Security Threat Group Office, and from information obtained from, but not limited to, the following: a) Texas Attorney General conference, October 1999 and 2003 b) Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Security Threat Group Officers c) California Department of Corrections d) Sacramento Intelligence Unit LEGEND: BOLD TYPE: Term or Phrase being used (Parenthesis): Used to show the possible origin of the term Meaning: Possible interpretation of the term PLEASE USE EXTREME CARE AND CAUTION IN THE DISPLAY AND USE OF THIS BOOK. DO NOT LEAVE IT WHERE IT CAN BE LOCATED, ACCESSED OR UTILIZED BY ANY UNAUTHORIZED PERSON. Revised: 25 August 2004 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS A: Pages 3-9 O: Pages 100-104 B: Pages 10-22 P: Pages 104-114 C: Pages 22-40 Q: Pages 114-115 D: Pages 40-46 R: Pages 115-122 E: Pages 46-51 S: Pages 122-136 F: Pages 51-58 T: Pages 136-146 G: Pages 58-64 U: Pages 146-148 H: Pages 64-70 V: Pages 148-150 I: Pages 70-73 W: Pages 150-155 J: Pages 73-76 X: Page 155 K: Pages 76-80 Y: Pages 155-156 L: Pages 80-87 Z: Page 157 M: Pages 87-96 #s: Pages 157-168 N: Pages 96-100 COMMENTS: When this “Dictionary” was first started, it was done primarily as an aid for the Security Threat Group Officers in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).
    [Show full text]
  • I SOUTHERN MONSTERS in SOUTHERN SPACES
    i SOUTHERN MONSTERS IN SOUTHERN SPACES: TRANSNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION by CHRISTEN ELIZABETH HAMMOCK (Under the Direction of JOHN LOWE) ABSTRACT Vampires, zombies, and other monsters have long been written about as a narrative space to work through collective anxieties, and the latest incarnation of these paranormal stories is no exception. What is remarkable is that many of these stories have adopted a Southern setting to explore Otherness. In this thesis, I seek to explore the role that Southern milieus plays in three television shows: The Walking Dead, True Blood, and Dexter. These shows are deeply invested in the culture and history of different “Souths,” ranging from the “Old South” of rural Georgia to a new, transnational South in Miami, Florida. I argue that this trend stems from the South’s hybrid existence as both colonizer and colonized, master and slave, and that a nuanced engagement with various Souths presents a narrative space of potential healing and rehabilitation. INDEX WORDS: Vampires; Zombies; Dexter; The Walking Dead; True Blood; Transnational; Southern literature; Television; U.S. South i SOUTHERN MONSTERS IN SOUTHERN SPACES: TRANSNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY TELEVISION by CHRISTEN ELIZABETH HAMMOCK A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 ii © 2014 Christen Elizabeth Hammock All Rights Reserved iii SOUTHERN MONSTERS IN SOUTHERN SPACES: TRANSNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography Is Divided Between Recorded and Braille Titles and by Fiction and Nonfiction
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 353 983 IR 054 358 AUTHOR Minor, Dorothy, Comp. TITLE The African-American Experience in the United States. INSTITUTION Florida State Dept. of Education, Tallahassee. Div. of Blind Services. PUB DATE 30 Sep 91 NOTE 142p.; For related documents, see IR 054 359-360. PUB TYPE Reference Materials Bibliographies (131) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adolescent Literature; Adults; Annotated Bibliographies; *Audiotape Recordings; *Black Literature; Blindness; *Braille; *Fiction; Large Type Materials; 'Nonfiction; Public Libraries; Secondary Education; Special Libraries IDENTIFIERS *African Americans ABSTRACT This annotated bibliography describes braille and recorded books presenting African-American personalities and concerns in fiction and nonfiction. Approximately 480 items are indexed. The bibliography is divided between recorded and braille titles and by fiction and nonfiction. There are separate sections for juvenile titles reflecting these divisions. Books for junior and senior high readers were placed in the juvenile sections; books for high school and adult readers were plat -ad in the adult sections. Some of the books are part of the Cassette Book Florida Collection, which are recorded by volunteers. A title index is provided. (KRN) * * * * * * ** * *** * ********,'c* *** *** 'r********** *** ******** ******************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF
    [Show full text]
  • On the Appearance of the Comedy LP, 1957–1973
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 On the Appearance of the Comedy LP, 1957–1973 David Michael McCarthy The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1515 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] ON THE APPEARANCE OF THE COMEDY LP, 1957–1973 by DAVID MICHAEL McCARTHY A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 ii © 2016 DAVID MICHAEL McCARTHY All rights reserved. iii On the Appearance of the Comedy LP, 1957–1973 by David Michael McCarthy This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ___________________ __________________________________________ Date Amy Herzog Chair of Examining Committee ___________________ __________________________________________ Date Norman Carey Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Jane Sugarman, Advisor Anne Stone, First Reader Sumanth Gopinath Amy Herzog THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv ABSTRACT On the Appearance of the Comedy LP, 1957–1973 by David Michael McCarthy Advisor: Dr. Jane Sugarman Many observers of contemporary comedy in the United States during the 1960s referred to musical aspects of extra-musical performances. Comedy LP records furnish important artifacts for the study of the musical appearances these observers produced for themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • Movie Riffing at B-Fest: an Exploration of Unscripted In-Theater Audience Participation As Embodied Performance of Film Criticism
    . Volume 18, Issue 1 May 2021 Movie riffing at B-Fest: An exploration of unscripted in-theater audience participation as embodied performance of film criticism Matt Foy, Upper Iowa University, USA Abstract: An increasingly rich area of interest in audience and media studies is the cultural practice of movie riffing: the performance of verbally or physically responding to a film with conspicuously critical and/or humorous observations. Riffing, a model of media consumption innovated and popularized by the cult television program Mystery Science Theater 3000, is a prominent feature of participatory audiencing rituals by which filmgoers and fan communities publicly engage in struggle over the meaning and value of mediated texts. Drawing on scholarship from cult audience, cultural and performance studies, this essay explores the state of ritual movie riffing at B-Fest, Northwestern University’s long- running annual twenty-four-hour celebration of ‘bad movies’ and the culture surrounding their public consumption. After riffing alongside B-Fest’s enthusiastic attendees, the author presents rhetorical strategies and discursive themes from B-Fest and considers movie riffing as a participatory, communal model of media criticism. Keywords: movie riffing, audiencing rituals, cult audiences, midnight movies One need only gaze across the landscape of McCormick Auditorium on the final weekend of January to know the attendees of B-Fest take their bad movies seriously. By 6:00 p.m. Friday each of McCormick’s 200-plus seats will be occupied with festival attendees and their belongings: winter coats, backpacks, blankets and pillows, knotted plastic grocery sacks of provisions, and hundreds of thin white paper plates.
    [Show full text]
  • 16 Raiford Ch16-Nyongo
    Habeas Ficta Fictive Ethnicity, Affecting Representations, and Slaves on Screen Tavia Nyong’o Can slavery be represented on screen? The question may sound rhetorical. Ever since D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation revolutionized the medium in 1915, slavery—and the repression of the afterlife of slavery—has been constitutive of cinematic representation. Indeed, one way to chart the history of Hollywood melodrama has been through its ever-shifting strategies for holding a distorting mirror to the spectacle of slavery and the lived experience of the slave. Linda Williams, for example, has carefully reconstructed the historical interplay between sentimental and melodramatic spectacles of black suffering in U.S. cinema.1 Without attempting to review the history of slave representation on screen comprehensively, this chapter does propose to describe four strategies that have crystalized recently: the sentimental, the antisentimental, the pornotropic, and the counter-pornotropic.2 Through this admittedly schematic rendering of the affective genres through which the slave is brought to impossible presence on screen, I aim to forward a second claim: I argue that the emergence of ethnic and national difference within screen representations of chattel slavery is not a recent phenomena, but a problem built into the im/possibility of representing the slave as such. In what way can slave representation be said to be im/possible, that is to say, both possible and impossible, without recourse to any “final analysis” that decides between the two? Film
    [Show full text]
  • Filming Black Voices and Stories: Slavery on America's Screens Brenda E
    Filming Black Voices and Stories: Slavery on America's Screens Brenda E. Stevenson The Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 8, Number 3, September 2018, pp. 488-520 (Article) Published by The University of North Carolina Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2018.0051 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/699974 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] review essay Filming Black Voices and Stories Slavery on America’s Screens brenda e. stevenson This essay underscores that film is a powerful medium that has been used to both solidify popular and scholarly images of history and radically challenge them. Slavery filmography began with all of the ugly, stereotyped characterizations and storylines one would expect of the racial nadir of the early twentieth century. A revolutionary social movement at midcentury and a profound revision in the his- toriography of slavery beginning in the 1970s prompted changes in the public’s reception of more realistic and humanistic images of enslaved black people, their interior lives, personal worth, and strivings. This essay moves forward from the earliest films to present-day cinema and TV series offerings to demonstrate how central slavery has been to Hollywood, its portrayal of American life, and how its screen representations have reflected changes in the historiography and the nation’s social realities. Underground, a two-season television series that premiered in 2016, marked a capstone moment in media production on the subject of slav- ery.1 The Anthony Hemingway–directed television saga displays enslaved men, women, and children whose lives do not center on their relation- ships with their owners, the morality of slavery, or even their day-to-day familial or work commitments in the shadow of that dreaded institution.
    [Show full text]
  • Staging Civil Rights: African American Literature, Performance, and Innovation
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Staging Civil Rights: African American Literature, Performance, and innovation Julius B. Fleming Jr University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the African American Studies Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, and the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fleming Jr, Julius B., "Staging Civil Rights: African American Literature, Performance, and innovation" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1276. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1276 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1276 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Staging Civil Rights: African American Literature, Performance, and innovation Abstract This dissertation examines the relationship between African American literature and performance during the modern Civil Rights Movement. It traces the ways in which the movement was acted out on the theatrical stage as creatively as it was at those sites of embodied activism that have survived in intellectual and popular memories: lunch counters and buses, schools and courtrooms, streets and prisons. Whereas television and photography have served as primary ways of knowing the movement, this project turns to African American literature, and the live performances it inspired, to provide a more complex framework for analyzing the
    [Show full text]