Double Negative
The Black Image and Popular Culture
Seiten
2018
Duke University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4780-0041-9 (ISBN)
Duke University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4780-0041-9 (ISBN)
Racquel J. Gates examines the potential of so-called negative representations of African Americans in film and TV, from Coming to America to Basketball Wives and Empire, showing how such representations can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot.
From the antics of Flavor Flav on Flavor of Love to the brazen behavior of the women on Love & Hip Hop, so-called negative images of African Americans are a recurrent mainstay of contemporary American media representations. In Double Negative Racquel J. Gates examines the generative potential of such images, showing how some of the most disreputable representations of black people in popular media can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot. Rather than falling back on claims that negative portrayals hinder black progress, Gates demonstrates how reality shows such as Basketball Wives, comedians like Katt Williams, and movies like Coming to America play on "negative" images to take up questions of assimilation and upward mobility, provide a respite from the demands of respectability, and explore subversive ideas. By using negativity as a framework to illustrate these texts' social and political work as they reverberate across black culture, Gates opens up new lines of inquiry for black cultural studies.
From the antics of Flavor Flav on Flavor of Love to the brazen behavior of the women on Love & Hip Hop, so-called negative images of African Americans are a recurrent mainstay of contemporary American media representations. In Double Negative Racquel J. Gates examines the generative potential of such images, showing how some of the most disreputable representations of black people in popular media can strategically pose questions about blackness, black culture, and American society in ways that more respectable ones cannot. Rather than falling back on claims that negative portrayals hinder black progress, Gates demonstrates how reality shows such as Basketball Wives, comedians like Katt Williams, and movies like Coming to America play on "negative" images to take up questions of assimilation and upward mobility, provide a respite from the demands of respectability, and explore subversive ideas. By using negativity as a framework to illustrate these texts' social and political work as they reverberate across black culture, Gates opens up new lines of inquiry for black cultural studies.
Racquel J. Gates is Assistant Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Negativity and the Black Popular Image 1
1. Eddie Murphy, Coming to America, and Formal Negativity 35
2. Relational Negativity: The Sellout Films of the 1990s 81
3. The Circumstantial Negativity of Halle Berry 114
4. Embracing the Ratchet: Reality Television and Strategic Negativity 142
Conclusion. Empire: A False Negative? 182
Notes 191
Bibliography 211
Index 219
Erscheinungsdatum | 22.08.2018 |
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Zusatzinfo | 52 illustrations |
Verlagsort | North Carolina |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
Gewicht | 476 g |
Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV |
Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett | |
Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte | |
Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft | |
Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
ISBN-10 | 1-4780-0041-4 / 1478000414 |
ISBN-13 | 978-1-4780-0041-9 / 9781478000419 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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