Download or read book Spike Lee s Bamboozled and Blackface in American Culture written by Elizabeth L. Sanderson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spike Lee's challenging film Bamboozled (2000) is often read as a surface level satire of blackface minstrelsy. Careful analysis, however, gives way to a complex and nuanced study of the history of black performance. This book analyzes the work of five men, minstrel performer Bert Williams, director Oscar Micheaux, writer Ralph Ellison, painter Michael Ray Charles, and director Spike Lee, all through the lens of this misunderstood film. Equal parts biography and cultural analysis, this book examines the intersections of these five artists and Bamboozled, and investigates their shared legacy of resistance against misrepresentation.
Download or read book Spike Lee s Bamboozled The Depiction of African Americas in US Popular Film and Television and its Traditions written by Ulrich Ackermann and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-03-08 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Freiburg, course: Hauptseminar The Rise of the Entertainment Industry, language: English, abstract: Throughout their history in the United States, African–Americans had never been in charge of their own image. When in Kentucky in 1928, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, a white man who performed in black-face "Jim Crow", a song that he had heard before in the South from a black performer, a new genre was born: the minstrel show, a white imitation of black culture. In his movie Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee confronts us with the question, if these racist nineteenth century depictions of African Americans still exist today in contemporary popular media. In this case we have to ask the question of responsibility for these representations: In the 1990s 340 billion dollars had been spent on media and entertainment in the United States. The entertainment industry today has become the fastest increasing factor of economy. Since the 1970s television is the largest and most influential entertainment medium in North America and occupies a crucial space in practices of everyday life, "where important social encounters and cultural transformations are possible." The concept of ‘seeing is believing’ obviously is a major factor here." A majority of Americans only came to know and understand the American racial order through media representations of the black ethnic other. This research paper will try to give some proof of the historical continuity of the stereotypical racist representations of African Americans from the days of minstrelsy and vaudeville until today.
Download or read book Spike Lee s Bamboozled written by Ulrich Ackermann and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Freiburg, course: Hauptseminar The Rise of the Entertainment Industry, language: English, abstract: Throughout their history in the United States, African-Americans had never been in charge of their own image. When in Kentucky in 1928, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, a white man who performed in black-face "Jim Crow", a song that he had heard before in the South from a black performer, a new genre was born: the minstrel show, a white imitation of black culture. In his movie Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee confronts us with the question, if these racist nineteenth century depictions of African Americans still exist today in contemporary popular media. In this case we have to ask the question of responsibility for these representations: In the 1990s 340 billion dollars had been spent on media and entertainment in the United States. The entertainment industry today has become the fastest increasing factor of economy. Since the 1970s television is the largest and most influential entertainment medium in North America and occupies a crucial space in practices of everyday life, "where important social encounters and cultural transformations are possible." The concept of 'seeing is believing' obviously is a major factor here." A majority of Americans only came to know and understand the American racial order through media representations of the black ethnic other. This research paper will try to give some proof of the historical continuity of the stereotypical racist representations of African Americans from the days of minstrelsy and vaudeville until today.
Download or read book Facing Blackness written by Ashley Clark and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive study of Bamboozled, Spike Lee's most controversial film.
Download or read book A Rhetoric of Symbolic Identity written by Gerald A. Powell (Jr.) and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2004 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores African-American identity through film, drawing from Spike Lee's cinematic production of X (1992) and Bamboozled (2000). The study brings attention to how African-American identity is negotiated in communicative interactions. In doing so, the study proposes an alternative rhetorical and cultural approach to the nuances of African-American identity. Using contemporary theories from Ronald Jackson, Mark McPhail, Cornel West, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Eric Watts, the researcher explores the dynamics of human interaction: the manifestations of power, perception, essentialist thinking, and how these in turn penetrate through language in our understanding of others. This study makes critical arguments concerning the strategic positioning of language for purposes of understanding culture and difference. More importantly, it rearticulates black identity, making an argument for its complexities, which are other than historical and factual. It argues that black identity needs to be examined in terms of a more critical and culturally appropriate rhetoric.
Download or read book Spike Lee s Bamboozled written by Alexandra Lamarque (auteur d'un mémoire en anglais).) and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Black Like You written by John Strausbaugh and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-08-16 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A refreshingly clearheaded and taboo-breaking look at race relations reveals that American culture is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. Black Like You is an erudite and entertaining exploration of race relations in American popular culture. Particularly compelling is Strausbaugh's eagerness to tackle blackface-a strange, often scandalous, and now taboo entertainment. Although blackface performance came to be denounced as purely racist mockery, and shamefacedly erased from most modern accounts of American cultural history, Black Like You shows that the impact of blackface on American culture was deep and long-lasting. Its influence can be seen in rock and hiphop; in vaudeville, Broadway, and gay drag performances; in Mark Twain and "gangsta lit"; in the earliest filmstrips and the 2004 movie White Chicks; on radio and television; in advertising and product marketing; and even in the way Americans speak. Strausbaugh enlivens themes that are rarely discussed in public, let alone with such candor and vision: - American culture neither conforms to knee-jerk racism nor to knee-jerk political correctness. It is neither Black nor White nor Other, but a mix-a mongrel. - No history is best forgotten, however uncomfortable it may be to remember. The power of blackface to engender mortification and rage in Americans to this day is reason enough to examine what it tells us about our culture and ourselves. - Blackface is still alive. Its impact and descendants-including Black performers in "whiteface"-can be seen all around us today.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Spike Lee written by Mark Conard and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2011-07-22 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over his twenty-plus year tenure in Hollywood, Spike Lee has produced a number of controversial films that unapologetically confront sensitive social issues, particularly those of race relations and discrimination. Through his honest portrayals of life’s social obstacles, he challenges the public to reflect on the world’s problems and divisions. The innovative director created a name for himself with feature films such as Do the Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992), and with documentaries such as 4 Little Girls (1997) and When the Levees Broke (2006), breaking with Hollywood’s reliance on cultural stereotypes to portray African Americans in a more realistic light. The director continues to produce poignant films that address some of modern society’s most important historical movements and events. In The Philosophy of Spike Lee, editor Mark T. Conard and an impressive list of contributors delve into the rich philosophy behind this filmmaker’s extensive work. Not only do they analyze the major themes of race and discrimination that permeate Lee’s productions, but also examine other philosophical ideas that are found in his films, ideas such as the nature of time, transcendence, moral motivation, self-constitution, and justice. The authors specialize in a variety of academic disciplines that range from African American Studies to literary and cultural criticism and Philosophy.
Download or read book Untimely Democracy written by Gregory Laski and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machine generated contents note: -- Table of Contents: -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: Democracy's Progress -- Chapter One: On the Possibility of Democracy in the Present-Past: Reading Thomas Jefferson and W.E.B. Du Bois in the Times of Slavery and Freedom -- Chapter Two: Narrating the Present-Past in Frederick Douglass's Life and Times -- Chapter Three: Making Reparation; or, How to Count the Wrongs of Slavery -- Chapter Four: Failed Futures: Of Prophecy and Pessimism at the Nadir -- Chapter Five: Pauline E. Hopkins's Untimely Democracy (Stasis, Agitation, Agency) -- Epilogue: Democracy's Plunges
Download or read book Critical Race Theory and Bamboozled written by Alessandra Raengo and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-10-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An introduction to Critical Race Theory through a close analysis of Spike Lee's film Bamboozled"--
Download or read book Spike Lee s Bamboozled written by Sara Corrizzato and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-12 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares the original version of the screenplay of the film Bamboozled (2000) with the Italian dubbed text, offering an analysis of forty-four compliments and forty-four insults. In order to provide a comparative study of the expressive speech acts in both versions, the book includes all the examples of such language use in the film. After a brief presentation of the main linguistic features of African American English and a short introduction to audiovisual language and to the relevance of audiovisual translation in the field of Translation Studies, every speech act in both versions is thoroughly analysed and commented upon. The contrastive analysis of the original and the dubbed version demonstrates that the most noteworthy discrepancies between the scripts are due to the transposition of lingua-cultural elements. Because of the constraints of the target language itself, several references to the African American community and heritage are omitted in the Italian text. Moreover, while the illocutionary force of dubbed utterances often coincides with the original, slang expressions and sub-standard linguistic traits are almost always weakened or neutralized.
Download or read book Spike Lee written by Jason P. Vest and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spike Lee's journey from guerrilla filmmaker to Hollywood insider is explored in light of his personal background, the cultural influence of his films, and the extensive scholarship his movies have inspired. This insightful study probes the iconic filmmaker's career as a director and shaper of American culture. It not only sheds light on the ways in which Lee's background, influences, and outlook affect his films but also discusses how he participates in, transforms, and transcends the tradition of black American filmmaking. Each chapter offers a critical assessment of at least one, and sometimes multiple, Lee films, examining their production history; their place in Lee's filmography; and their aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance. Readers will come away from this first scholarly assessment of Lee's career and work with a better understanding of his penchant for stirring up controversy about significant social, political, and artistic issues as well as his role as an American artist who provokes his audiences as much as he pacifies them.
Download or read book Burnt Cork written by Stephen Burge Johnson and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in the 1830s and continuing for more than a century, blackface minstrelsy--stage performances that claimed to represent the culture of black Americans--remained arguably the most popular entertainment in North America. A renewed scholarly interest in this contentious form of entertainment has produced studies treating a range of issues: its contradictory depictions of class, race, and gender; its role in the development of racial stereotyping; and its legacy in humor, dance, and music, and in live performance, film, and television. The style and substance of minstrelsy persist in popular music, tap and hip-hop dance, the language of the standup comic, and everyday rituals of contemporary culture. The blackface makeup all but disappeared for a time, though its influence never diminished--and recently, even the makeup has been making a comeback. This collection of original essays brings together a group of prominent scholars of blackface performance to reflect on this complex and troublesome tradition. Essays consider the early relationship of the blackface performer with American politics and the antislavery movement; the relationship of minstrels to the commonplace compromises of the touring "show" business and to the mechanization of the industrial revolution; the exploration and exploitation of blackface in the mass media, by D. W. Griffith and Spike Lee, in early sound animation, and in reality television; and the recent reappropriation of the form at home and abroad. In addition to the editor, contributors include Dale Cockrell, Catherine Cole, Louis Chude-Sokei, W. T. Lhamon, Alice Maurice, Nicholas Sammond, and Linda Williams.
Download or read book Paris Blues written by Andy Fry and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-07-04 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jazz Age. The phrase conjures images of Louis Armstrong holding court at the Sunset Cafe in Chicago, Duke Ellington dazzling crowds at the Cotton Club in Harlem, and star singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. But the Jazz Age was every bit as much of a Paris phenomenon as it was a Chicago and New York scene. In Paris Blues, Andy Fry provides an alternative history of African American music and musicians in France, one that looks beyond familiar personalities and well-rehearsed stories. He pinpoints key issues of race and nation in France’s complicated jazz history from the 1920s through the 1950s. While he deals with many of the traditional icons—such as Josephine Baker, Django Reinhardt, and Sidney Bechet, among others—what he asks is how they came to be so iconic, and what their stories hide as well as what they preserve. Fry focuses throughout on early jazz and swing but includes its re-creation—reinvention—in the 1950s. Along the way, he pays tribute to forgotten traditions such as black musical theater, white show bands, and French wartime swing. Paris Blues provides a nuanced account of the French reception of African Americans and their music and contributes greatly to a growing literature on jazz, race, and nation in France.
Download or read book Fight the Power written by Janice D. Hamlet and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shelton Jackson «Spike» Lee is one of the most culturally influential and provocative film directors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Bringing together seminal writings - from classic scholarship to new research - this book focuses on this revolutionary film auteur and cultural provocateur to explore contemporary questions around issues of race, politics, sexuality, gender roles, filmmaking, commercialism, celebrity, and the role of media in public discourse. Situating Lee as an important contributor to a variety of American discourses, the book highlights his commitment to exploring issues of relevance to the Black community. His work demands that his audiences take inventory of his and their understandings of the complexities of race relations, the often deleterious influence of media messages, the long term legacy of racism, the liberating effects of sexual freedom, the controversies that arise from colorism, the separatist nature of classism, and the cultural contributions and triumphs of historical figures. This book seeks to stimulate continued debate by examining the complexities in Lee's various sociopolitical claims and their ideological impacts.
Download or read book Crazy Funny written by Lisa A. Guerrero and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-28 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the ways in which contemporary works of black satire make black racial madness legible in ways that allow us to see the connections between suffering from racism and suffering from mental illness. Showing how an understanding of racism as a root cause of mental and emotional instability complicates the ways in which we think about racialized identity formation and the limits of socially accepted definitions of (in)sanity, it concentrates on the unique ability of the genre of black satire to make knowable not only general qualities of mental illness that are so often feared or ignored, but also how structures of racism contribute a specific dimension to how we understand the different ways in which people of color, especially black people, experience and integrate mental instability into their own understandings of subjecthood. Drawing on theories from ethnic studies, popular culture studies, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, and trauma theory to offer critical textual analyses of five different instances of new millennial black satire in television, film, and literature – the television show Chappelle’s Show, the Spike Lee film Bamboozled, the novel The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty, the novels Erasure and I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett, and the television show Key & Peele – Crazy Funny presents an account of the ways in which contemporary black satire rejects the boundaries between sanity and insanity as a way to animate the varied dimensions of being a racialized subject in a racist society.
Download or read book Irony in the Age of Empire written by Cynthia Willett and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-07-09 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comedy, from social ridicule to the unruly laughter of the carnival, provides effective tools for reinforcing social patterns of domination as well as weapons for emancipation. In Irony in the Age of Empire, Cynthia Willett asks: What could embody liberation better than laughter? Why do the oppressed laugh? What vision does the comic world prescribe? For Willett, the comic trumps standard liberal accounts of freedom by drawing attention to bodies, affects, and intimate relationships, topics which are usually neglected by political philosophy. Willett's philosophical reflection on comedy issues a powerful challenge to standard conceptions of freedom by proposing a new kind of freedom that is unapologetically feminist, queer, and multiracial. This book provides a wide-ranging, original, thoughtful, and expansive discussion of citizenship, social manners, and political freedom in our world today.
