The Persistence of Whiteness: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

by Bernardi; Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780415774123
• ISBN10: 0415774128
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The Persistence of Whiteness investigates the representation and narration of race in contemporary Hollywood cinema, centring on ideologies of class, ethnicity, gender, nation and sexuality as well as the growth of the business of filmmaking. Focusing on representations of Black, Asian, Jewish, Latina/o and Native Americans identities, this collection also shows how whiteness is a fact everywhere in contemporary Hollywood cinema, crossing audiences, authors, genres, studios and styles. Bringing together essays from respected film scholars, the collection covers a wide range of important films, including Guess Whoa??s Coming to Dinner, The Color Purple, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings . Essays also consider genres from the western to blaxploitation and new black cinema; provocative filmmakers such as Melvin Van Peebles and Steven Spielberg and stars including Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Lopez. Daniel Bernardi provides an in-depthintroduction, comprehensive bibliography and a helpful glossary of terms, to complete this accessible and topical collection on race and ethnicity in contemporary cinema.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

Generic History Manifest Myth-Making: Texas History in the Movies

Mapping the Beach: Beach Movies, Exploitation Film & Geographies of Whiteness

New Black Cinema and Black Masculinity

Anthropomorphism Star Wars Episodes I-VI: Coyote and the Force of White Narrative

The Whiteness of the Rings Sean Redmond Neo Abolitionists, Colorblind Epistemologies and Black Politics: The

Blood & Bodies Vampires of Color and the Performance of Multicultural

The Naked and the Dead: The Jewish Male Body and Masculinity in Sunshine and Enemy at the Gates

Mobilizing Race from the Wide Shot to the Close-Up

Desire to Desire Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with

the Supreme Court, or Reforming Popular Racial Memory with

Courtney Master-Slave Sex Acts: Mandingo and the Race/Sex

The Tragedy of Whiteness and Neo-Liberalism in

Must Die: Interracial Romance in Action

Provocateurs The Dark Side of Whiteness: Sweetback

Idea of The Gains of the Lower Class

Like Him

The Color Purple

Crossover

Goldberg Persona Politics

Surviving In Living Color with Some White Chicks: Whiteness in the Wayans' (Black) Minds

Glossary to Terms

Select Bibliography

List of Contributors

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