Stella Van Meersbergen Thesis Final Version

!1 Contesting stereotypes and norms in African-American popular culture Representations of race, (homo)sexuality and fluidity within Baldwin’s Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968), Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016) and Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids” and “Nikes”. MA Thesis in Literary Studies: Literature, Culture and Society Graduate School for Humanities Universiteit van Amsterdam By: Stella van Meersbergen 10355987 Supervisor: dr. H.H. (Hanneke) Stuit Second reader: dr. S. (Suze) van der Poll June, 2018 !2 Table of contents 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….. 3 - 9 2. Fluidity of Identity in James Baldwin’s Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968)…………………………………………………………………………………….10-20 2.1. The general consensus……………………………………………………………10-13 2.2. Meeting the norm: Leo and Barbara……………………………………………..13-14 2.3. Double oppression: Sexuality and race………………………………………….14-16 2.4. Heteronormative desire: Leo and Madeleine……………………………………16 2.5. Contesting the norm: Leo and Christopher…………………………………….. 17-18 2.6. Fluidity as a defense and power mechanism……………………………………18-19 3. Appropriation and mimicry within Moonlight (2016)……………………………..21-32 3.1. Imposed identity…………………………………………………………………….23-26 3.2. Changing identity……………………………………………………………………26-27 3.3. Black and Blue: Mimicking identity………………………………………………..27-31 4. Contesting the genre: Fluidity in Frank Ocean’s lyrics and videos…………….33-45 4.1. Affirming stereotypes in “Pyramids”……………..………………………………..35-38 4.2. Contesting stereotypes in “Nikes”……………..………………………………….38-40 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..42-45 Bibliography !3 Introduction In the last five years, African-American literature has been more visible than before, and these narratives are being portrayed in different media. This might be a response to the political issues regarding racial injustice and inequality in the USA which are being high- lighted through news outlets as well as popular culture. Critical African-American writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates are gaining popularity. Coates even has been compared to Ja- mes Baldwin, whose legacy is central to the African-American literary canon. Even though they discuss various similar racial problems within society in their essays, Baldwin has been known for his fiction which touches upon other subjects as well. In his fiction he often focusses on homosexual or bisexual relationships between biracial characters. As a gay African-American writer he had to endure discrimination within his community as well. One of his least popular novels, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone (1968) included gay, bisexual and interracial relationships. Nowadays, novels such as Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone are hard to find within recent African-American literature. Prominent writers such as Ta-Nehisi Coates focus more on racial inequalities and social injustices in essays, columns or autobiographies instead of writing fiction. Instead of literature, there have been a lot of other ways in which African-American narratives are being portrayed in the last few years. For example, at the beginning of 2018, Black Panther (2018) was released in cinemas. This film, which is the highest gros- sing film by an African-American director, gained a lot of popularity, especially within the African-American community. Major factors such as racism and sexism are being tackled in this film, but there is one factor which still is not included, homosexuality. A film which does include homosexuality within an African-American narrative is Oscar winner Moon- light (2016). In 2017, Moonlight won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Moonlight focu- ses on a homosexual man who struggles with his identity within society and within his Afri- can-American subculture. The script is based on situations the director Barry Jenkins and screenwriter Tarrell Alvin McCraney experienced themselves. This film included an all- black cast and was rewarded with an Academy Award. However, it does not reach the popularity of a film such as Black Panther, even though a lot of elements are comparable. It is interesting that the makers of Moonlight use film as a medium to talk about homosexuality within African-American culture. Just as happened fifty years ago with Baldwin’s novel on the same subject, which turned out to be one of his least popular ones, Moonlight did not achieve the popular success a film as Black Panther lay claim to. This could be a result of the recent political issues regarding racial injustice in the USA. Films such as Black !4 Panther show powerful and heroic black characters in contrast to Moonlight, which focusses on a more complex and vulnerable character. African-American music artists are becoming more popular as well and they often address political and racial arguments within their lyrics. Rapper Kendrick Lamar received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his album Damn. He is the first rapper to receive this prize. More recently, hiphop artist Childish Gambino released a new song and accompanying vi- deo “This is America” on May 4, 2018, with highly potent lyrics and imagery addressing multiple political topics. Many important topics are being discussed within hip-hop music and due to its popularity there is a large audience. We can draw a parallel between literature, film and music. In all three genres political and racial issues are being discussed and highly popular, but issues around LGBT issues are often not included. Within the hip-hop and R&B scene there is an exception. Rapper and singer Frank Ocean has openly talked about having feelings for both men and women, and addresses this topic in certain songs as well. Many have praised him for doing this within a subculture which often still shows homophobia. Still, the topic is not completely accepted within this subculture either. Frank Ocean is a major artist but other popular artists within the hip-hop and R&B scene still include homophobia in their lyrics. It would be important to analyze how in different ways, the same subject is being processed through different forms of media. Analyzing this, it would be significant to research how homosexuality is portrayed within African-American popular culture and how it affects the concept of masculinity within African-American literature and culture. Also, it is interesting to see in what way this concept has changed since Baldwin’s work and why it is being processed in different forms of media now. This thesis focusses on three objects within three different forms of media. The first research object will be James Baldwin’s novel Tell Me How Long The Train’s Been Gone (1968) which I will focus on in chapter two. The second research object I will focus on is the film Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins which will be discussed in chapter three. Lastly, in chapter four I will focus on the music and videoclips by hip-hop and R&B artist Frank Ocean. These are three well-known objects. Baldwin can be seen as canoni- cal, Moonlight will be remembered because of its Academy Award and Frank Ocean is one of the most popular artists at the moment. These three works all critically address racism, violence and social injustice. A factor that is included most prominently is sexuality and especially homosexuality within the African-American community. By examining three different forms of media all focussing on homosexuality within African-American culture and by authors and artists who are African-American and homosexual or bisexual themselves I !5 hope I can shed some light on the way these artists compete with the stereotypes that exist within African-American culture and how they use fluid identities to affirm and contest these stereotypes. To place these works into a broader framework I will focus on a few different theories as discussed above. First and foremost I will look at gender performativity as explai- ned in works by Judith Butler. Besides this, I am going to include the concept of mimicry as introduced by Homi Bhabha in his “Of Mimicry and Man”. Besides these bigger concepts I will focus on articles which shed some light on the current debates surrounding these research objects and homosexuality and masculinity within the African-American community to create a broader framework. By applying Butler’s and Bhabha’s theory onto these three case studies as well as taking into account the general discourse on homosexuality within the African-American community I would like to show that through different forms of media, different strategies are being used to deal with the double oppression people of color who do not meet the heteronormative standards endure. In this thesis I argue that through different forms of media, African-American authors and artists compete with the stereotypical concept of masculinity within African-American literature and culture as well as use their fluid identity as a survival strategy against stereo- typing by their community. I suggest that appropriate way to research this is by looking at popular culture since it often reflects what is happening in specific societies, such as the African-American society. Besides this, popular culture is also performative and can trigger reflection and change. As discussed above, the theory I use to substantiate my argument will primarily be Judith Butler’s performativity as discussed in her book Bodies that Matter (1993) and her article “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenome- nology and Feminist Theory” (1988). Besides Butler I am going to focus on Homi Bhabha’s “Of Mimicry and Man” (1984). I apply their theory onto three different case studies. I will introduce these theories briefly before applying them to my research objects. Judith Butler focusses on different aspects regarding gender theory in her works. One of the aspects she focusses on is gender performativity. In her book Gender Trouble (1990) she states that throughout the course of a life, one repeats performances of gender that conform to the gender norm of society.

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