Passing and Posing between Black and White
-
Lisa Gotto
About this book
Since its inception, U.S. American cinema has grappled with the articulation of racial boundaries. This applies, in the first instance, to featuring mixed-race characters crossing the color line. In a broader sense, however, this also concerns viewing conditions and knowledge configurations. The fact that American film engages itself so extensively with the unbalanced relation between black and white is neither coincidental nor trivial to state — it has much more to do with disputing boundaries that pertain to the medium itself. Lisa Gotto examines this constellation along the early history of American film, the cinematic modernism of the late 1950s, and the post-classical cinema of the turn of the millennium.
Author / Editor information
Lisa Gotto (Prof. Dr. phil.) ist Professorin für Theorie des Films an der Universität Wien. Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Filmtheorie, Bewegtbildästhetik und Digitale Medienkultur.
Reviews
»[The book] makes a compelling case for engaging with representations of racial passing on screen with a specific focus on aesthetics and form, and the ways in which they have contributed to filmic innovation in the United States.«
Supplementary Materials
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
1 -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
5 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Acknowledgements
7 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Foreword
9 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Introduction
15 - I. Conquered – Unconquered
-
Download PDFOpen Access
The Birth of a Nation (David Wark Griffith, USA 1915)
27 -
Download PDFOpen Access
The Symbol of the Unconquered (Oscar Micheaux, USA 1920)
47 - II. Reflections – Shadows
-
Download PDFOpen Access
Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, USA 1959)
79 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Shadows (John Cassavetes, USA 1959)
123 - III. Blackface – Whiteface
-
Download PDFOpen Access
Bamboozled (Spike Lee, USA 2000)
167 -
Download PDFOpen Access
The Human Stain (Robert Benton, USA 2003)
195 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Conclusion
223 - IV. Appendix
-
Download PDFOpen Access
Bibliography
235 -
Download PDFOpen Access
Filmography
245 -
Download PDFOpen Access
List of Figures
247
