1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study During Pre-Civil Rights and Colonization era where society only saw “Black” and “White” to differentiate skin color based on social class and status, African-American, Black British, or colored skin further was seen as an inferior or having a lower class rather than those with white skins. This condition was not also far from biracial issue, there were also some people who were born from the mixed races of these black and white. These mixed-race persons also known as “mulatto” which commonly refers to a mixed-race ancestry that comes from white European and black African parents (Barrera, 2015). These people usually have light or brown skin colors; they can sometimes look whiter or blacker according to the dominant genetic of their parents in their bloods. Most of mulattoes were usually confused with their identity because they were born from the mixed-race of white and black, and they could choose to be white because they may look whiter with their light skin color, taking advantages of their European race because of its privilege during the colonization and pre- civil rights era. In other ways they could also choose to stay true with their identity or choose to stand with their African race and not feel ashamed to accept their black identity. This process then creates several problems and racial issues regarding to their mixed race and identity, it was not rare to see these people get discriminated and stereotyped because of their looks and skin color during the colonization and the pre-civil rights era. Some examples of the movies that discuss about racial mixing issue through their mulatto characters are The Imitation of Life (1959) and Belle (2013) . The Imitation of life (1959) is a movie directed by Douglas Sirk. This was adapted from Fannie Hurst’s novel with the same title and was also directed by John M. Stahl first in 1934. The story is about Lora Meredith a single mother and her daughter Susie who meets Annie Johnson, a homeless African-American Woman and her daughter Sarah Jane in 1947, after meeting by accident they live in Lora’s house as a maid for her and Susie. Along the way, Sarah Jane discovers her identity that she does not like being black because she’s light-skinned (her

father was white), then she spends the rest of the story doing racial passing and pretending as white even betraying her own mother, meanwhile Lora is struggling with her problem to pursue her career as a Broadway Actress and her complex problem with her grown up daughter who falls in love with her own crush. Douglas Sirk was the director of The Imitation of life (1959) . He was a German who was born as Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany. He is known with his 1950s melodramas and had made several famous works, some of them are; Zu neuen Ufern (1937), Summer Storm (1944), Lured (1947), All I Desire (1953), Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), Written on the Wind (1957), and The Imitation of Life (1959). He often used dramatic and tragic theme in dealing with love, death and societal constraints. There were also many critics on his 1950’s melodramas, some reviewers found that they were using unimportant issue which revolves around female and domestic issues, unrealistic, and seemed as being in bad taste because of their melodramatic manner. Even though, he had received many criticisms which gave an impact to his reputation, he had his success in remaking The Imitation of Life . He had won the Laurel Award for the most successful picture of 1959 for this masterpiece. It was his final film which dealt with issues of race, class and gender. While his reputation had not ‘healed’ yet, Douglas Sirk passed away on January 14, 1987. He has influenced several filmmakers. Some of them are Todd Haynes and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven (2002) was inspired by Sirk’s films, All That Heaven Allows and The Imitation of Life which explores the theme of race, gender roles, sexual orientation of America in 1950’s. Meanwhile, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen Seele auf) (1974) was the transposition of All That Heaven Allows into contemporary Germany. Belle (2013) is a movie directed by Amma Asante. This film was inspired by the Painting of Dido Belle and her cousin Elizabeth Murray in 1779 at Kenwood House which was commissioned by their great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, then Lord Chief Justice of England. The story is about Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay who is a mulatto daughter of African woman in the West Indies, and a British Royal Navy officer, Captain Sir John Lindsay. She is taken by her father to live with her father’s aristocrat family in Kenwood house with

her great uncle, Lord Mansfield, her great aunts, Lady Mansfield, and Lady Marry, and also her cousin Elizabeth Murray. Along the story Dido struggles with her biracial identity and her informal status as a mulatto to find her place and position in society. Her father passes away when she grows up and leaves her generous sum of £2,000 a year as an heiress. Dido can marry anyone with that income. Dido keeps struggling with her identity and one day meets Lord Mansfield law students as well as a son of reverend who is doing his apprentice at Kenwood house Named John Davinier. Dido slowly feels interested with Davinier and finds out about the Zong massacre, a case that has been discussed by Davinier and Lord Mansfield. Zong case is a fraud act where slaves were killed and drowned from the ship for the sake of the ship owner’s financial matter. The slaves were diseased, thus, the ship owner threw them into the water believing that they would not achieved a good price at the market and they want the insurance to pay for their missing slaves. Amma Asante is the director of Belle (2013) . She was born in London in 1969, to Ghanaian parents. She has directed several movies before such as a Way of life (2004), Where Hands touch (2018), Belle (2013), and A United Kingdom (2016). Her movies usually deal with racial mixing issue and a relationship between African and European progeny. She has a Danish husband named Soren Kragh Pedersen which may affect her interest to explore and create several films regarding to the racial mixing, interracial relationship, or biracial identity. She tries to portray people of color in her films to make us aware that these people also want to be heard as they were treated unequally in the past. “I’m interested in characters of color having to assert their identity in situations where not many people are around to support them, so their struggle is harder. I’m also interested in love and politics, and interracial relationships often have those things—a sense of struggle, and a political and personal assertion of identity.” As Amma stated. It can be seen that on these films there are several racial problems that can be analyzed regarding to biracial issue of Sarah Jane and Dido Belle’s identity as a black-white biracial daughter. The writer chooses these films in order to find out about how discrimination and stereotyping happens, how biracial identity portrayed through mulatto characters, and how hybridity is celebrated regarding to racial mixing and post-colonial issue during colonization era in Britain and pre-civil rights era in America. This research will explain the further explanation

about a comparative analysis of biracial Identity of mulatto characters in The Imitation of Life (1959) and Belle (2013) movie using post-colonial approach (racial discrimination, stereotype, and hybridity) in its relation to racial mixing issue (biracial identity, tragic mulatto, and racial passing). The analysis of these films will be dealing with both relevant film screenshots and dialogues.

1.2 Problem Formulation There are three problem formulations that will be analyzed on this thesis, 1. How the Post-colonial issues such as racial discrimination and stereotyping are represented in each movie? 2. How are the racial mixing issues such as biracial identity, tragic mulatto, and racial passing portrayed through mulatto characters in each movie? 3. How is hybridity portrayed in each movie?

1.3 Goals and Functions There are three goals of writing this thesis, 1. To find out how racial discrimination and stereotyping happens in general during the pre-civil rights and the colonization era.

2. To explain about how mulatto characters deal with their biracial identity in The Imitation of Life (1959) and Belle (2013) movies.

3. To discuss how hybridity is portrayed in The Imitation of Life (1959) and Belle (2013) movies.

There are also two functions of writing this thesis, 1. To make the reader understands about how Post-colonial and racial mixing issues happened during the colonization and pre-civil rights era. 2. To help the readers know about biracial identity problems that a mulatto has to face in their life. 1.4 Scope and Limitation The scope of this paper will focus on Post-colonial issue (racial discrimination, stereotyping, and hybridity) and racial mixing issue (biracial identity, tragic mulatto, and racial passing) in T he Imitation of Life (1959) and

Belle (2013) films. The limitation of this paper will be focusing on mulatto characters of each film, Sarah Jane and Dido Belle.

1.5 State of the Art In order to conduct the further research, the writer will state two previous studies which used the same topic. There are two similar previous studies regarding to this biracial issue which are; Biracial Identity and the Search for Self-Identity in Danzy Senna’s Caucasia by Eka Nurcahyani (2011) and Tragic Mulatta 2.0: A Postcolonial Approximation and Critique of the Representations of Bi-Ethnic Women in U.S. Film and TV by Hadia Nouria Bendelhoum (2017). In Biracial Identity and the Search for Self-Identity in Danzy Senna’s Caucasia by Eka Nurcahyani (2011), this research has a goal to examine the development of the emancipated biracial concept in the context of United States of America’s racial ideology between 1960’s until 1980’s in Caucasia novel. The author used the concepts of America’s racial ideology context in between 1960’s until 1980’s which are divided into racial and identity ideology in America, race and racism concept, racial passing concept, tragic mulatto concept, performative concept, and postethnic concept to explain how emancipated biracial ideology is developed through the characterization of the main character, Birdie Lee, a black/white biracial teenager who physically looked whiter. The method that is used on this thesis was descriptive qualitative which was analyzed through the elements of fiction of literature; character and characterization, plot (conflict), time and setting, and also theme. Those were linked with identity concept according to Stuart Hall, and the cultural identity was linked with performative concept according to Judith Butler. The findings showed that the main character had done a double passing. She passed for black in a black community, and she passed for white in a white community. This was her strategies in order to survive and to be accepted in each community. Biracial identity in postethnic perspective which is given by Caucasia is an alternative to deconstruct the racial category such as the black/white racial binary, which is considered as fixed and stable. The second is Tragic Mulatta 2.0: A Postcolonial Approximation and Critique of the Representations of Bi-Ethnic Women in U.S. Film and TV by Hadia Nouria Bendelhoum (2017). This research has a goal to analyze the

representations of five bi-ethnic women characters in U.S. mass media both before and after U.S. “post-racial” era in order to find and expose evidence of the continuity of racist stereotypes against biracial women. The method of this research was a thematic textual analysis supported by the theories, ideas, and critical views of postcolonial theorists Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Spivak, and Edward Said, and three prominent themes which expose the nature of the representations of lead bi-ethnic characters in current mass media entertainment (TV programs and films). The findings showed that the tragic mulatta has manifested itself to appeal to the attitudes of dominant culture to seem politically correct. As seen in the analysis that each of the themes leads to the next with the last one being elimination. The representations of bi-ethnicity in Imitation of Life (Hunder & Sirk, 1959) were similar to those found in Dear White People (Brown, et al., 2014). Both Sarah Jane and Sam attempt to conform to one side of their identity and discount the other. The visual representations of the three TV characters as paired with the visual representation of Queen, not only support but further reinforce the myth of the tragic mulatta and the social hierarchy of race and beauty standards.