Excavating the Ghetto Action Cycle (1991-1996): A Case Study for a Cycle-Based Approach to Genre Study by Amanda Ann Klein B.A. in English, Cornell University, 1999 M.A. in English, University of Pittsburgh, 2001 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2007 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Amanda Ann Klein It was defended on July 24, 2007 and approved by Dr. Jane Feuer, Associate Professor, Department of English Dr. Neepa Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of English Dr. Paula Massood, Associate Professor, Department of English (Brooklyn College) Dissertation Chair: Dr. Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Amanda Ann Klein 2007 iii Excavating the Ghetto Action Cycle (1991-1996): A Case Study for a Cycle-Based Approach to Genre Study Amanda Ann Klein, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2007 The following dissertation, “Excavating the Ghetto Action Cycle (1991-1996): A Case Study for a Cycle-based Approach to Genre Theory,” traces an historical, cultural and theoretical genealogy for the ghetto action cycle. This controversial cycle, which was initiated by the success of films like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society, participated in the period’s broad cultural debates about race, class, crime and youth. As film cycles are strongly shaped by audience desire, financial viability, current events and studio whims, I argue that they retain the marks of their historical, socioeconomic and generic contexts more precisely than genres, which, because of their longevity and heterogeneity, can be unwieldy objects of study. My dissertation therefore advances a cycle-based approach to genre theory, illuminating the significance of the film cycle, its function within popular culture and its centrality to genre studies. Structured by the belief that viewers have a wide range of interpretive choices in any viewing situation, my dissertation employs multiple paradigms for reading the ghetto action cycle—principally, the gangster genre, the 1930s Dead End Kids cycle, the 1950s juvenile delinquent teenpic cycle and the 1970s blaxploitation cycle. Each chapter is also a specific application of a cycle-based approach to genre studies, emphasizing in the historicity of genre formations and theorizing about the significance and function of the film cycle in defining genres, articulating social problems, shaping subcultures and exploiting contemporary prejudices. Furthermore, all of the cycles examined were conceived during key moments of transition in American history—the iv Progressive movement of the 1910s and 1920s, the beginnings of America’s involvement in WWII, the birth of the teenager, the 1970s Black Nationalist movement, and the drug and gang banger crises of the early 1990s. Thus, close readings, not just of the films, but of the films in the context of their cycles, offer new ways of understanding how the popular imagination interprets moments of social change, and how the film industry seeks to capitalize upon these interpretations. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE..................................................................................................................................... X INTRODUCTION: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, OR TOWARDS A THEORY OF FILM CYCLES ........................................................................................................................................ 1 EXCAVATING THE GHETTO ACTION CYCLE......................................................... 1 THEORIZING THE FILM CYCLE................................................................................ 10 WHY HAVE FILM CYCLES BEEN IGNORED BY GENRE STUDIES?................. 23 Issue # 1: Film Cycles are Unstable.......................................................................... 23 Issue # 2: Film Cycles are Too Commercial/Too Low Brow.................................. 27 Issue # 3: Cycles Frequently Change Their Labels................................................. 33 CHAPTER BREAKDOWN .............................................................................................. 35 1.0 THE GANGSTER FILM: WHAT CAN BORDER TEXTS TELL US ABOUT A GENRE’S PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE?........................................................................ 41 1.1 READING THROUGH THE PARADIGM OF CENTRAL TEXTS .......... 41 1.1.1 Tracing the Gangsta to the Gangster........................................................ 47 1.1.2 Tracing the Ghetto Action Film to the Gangster Film ............................ 63 1.2 READING THROUGH THE PARADIGM OF BORDER TEXTS............. 82 1.2.1.1 The Importance of Melodrama in the Gangster Film..................... 89 vi 1.2.2 The Redemption/Regeneration Cycle: Love Triangles and Reforming Mentors ………………………………………………………………………………98 1.2.3 Implications for the Ghetto Action Cycle ............................................... 108 1.3 CONCLUSIONS: BORDER TEXTS AND CYCLES.................................. 121 2.0 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM FILM: WHERE DO CYCLES GO WHEN THEY DIE?............................................................................................................................................125 2.1 READING THROUGH THE PARADIGM OF THE CYCLE................... 125 2.1.1 A Brief History of the Social Problem Film............................................ 127 2.1.2 Identifying a Shared Semantics ............................................................... 131 2.1.3 Tying Semantics to Syntax ....................................................................... 150 2.2 A THEORY OF CYCLE EVOLUTION ....................................................... 160 2.2.1 A Move to Comedy.................................................................................... 175 2.2.2 Generic Hybrids, Timely Topics and Low Budget Filmmaking........... 193 2.3 CONCLUSIONS: RECUPERATING THEORIES OF GENERIC EVOLUTION.................................................................................................................... 215 3.0 THE JUVENILE DELINQUENT TEENPIC: HOW DOES THE EXPLOITATION OF YOUTH SUBCULTURES HELP TO CREATE A FILM CYCLE (AND VICE VERSA)?.............................................................................................................. 220 3.1 A TALE OF TWO DELINQUENTS ............................................................. 221 3.1.1 Defining Subcultures ................................................................................ 229 3.2 FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: SHAPING THE 1950S TEEN SUBCULTURE................................................................................................................. 235 3.2.1 The JD Teenpic Cycle............................................................................... 250 vii 3.3 FROM THE MARGINS TO THE CENTER: SHAPING THE 1990S TEEN SUBCULTURE................................................................................................................. 260 3.3.1 Hip Hop Teenpics...................................................................................... 274 3.3.2 The Ghetto Action Cycle .......................................................................... 280 3.4 PULLING THE MARGINS INTO THE CENTER: THE JD TEENPIC.. 293 3.5 PULLING THE MARGINS INTO THE CENTER: THE GHETTO ACTION CYCLE ............................................................................................................. 299 3.6 CONCLUSIONS: THE LAW OF ENTROPY.............................................. 304 4.0 THE BLAXPLOITATION CYCLE: WHAT IS THE ROLE OF RACE IN THE CREATION OF A FILM CYCLE? ........................................................................................ 311 4.1 THE “BLACK FILM BOOM”....................................................................... 311 4.1.1 Exploitation and Blackface ...................................................................... 315 4.2 RACE AND THE FORMATION OF A CYCLE ......................................... 324 4.2.1 “Blaxploitation” of the Past ..................................................................... 324 4.2.2 The Economics of Race............................................................................. 332 4.2.3 The Blaxploitation Cycle .......................................................................... 341 4.2.4 The “Gangsploitation” Cycle................................................................... 365 4.3 RACE AND THE DEATH OF A CYCLE .................................................... 383 4.3.1 The End of the Blaxploitation Cycle ....................................................... 386 4.3.2 The End of the Ghetto Action Cycle ....................................................... 395 4.4 CONCLUSIONS: MODERN MINSTRELS OR SOCIAL CRITICS?...... 405 5.0 CONCLUSION: LAST STOP, THE MUSIC VIDEO ......................................... 411 viii 5.1 READING THE GHETTO ACTION CYCLE THROUGH THE PARADIGM OF THE MUSIC VIDEO ......................................................................... 412 5.1.1 Reclaiming Rap Music’s Lost Authenticity............................................ 427 5.2 CASE STUDY: “HATE IT OR LOVE IT”................................................... 438 5.3 CONCLUSIONS: A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO GENRE AND CYCLE THEORY............................................................................................................ 460 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................