| Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film before World War II |
| Author: Cedric J. Robinson
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $22.50
New (1) from $22.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 188922
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 445
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0807858412
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43652996073
EAN: 9780807858417
ASIN: 0807858412
Publication Date: December 17, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
|
Also Available In:
|
|
Similar Items:
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Cedric J. Robinson offers a new understanding of race in America through his analysis of theater and film of the early twentieth century. He argues that economic, political, and cultural forces present in the eras of silent film and the early "talkies" firmly entrenched limited representations of African Americans. Robinson's analysis marks a new way of approaching the intellectual, political, and media racism present in the beginnings of American narrative cinema.
|
|
Customer Reviews:
A Stupendous Effort August 4, 2008
This is one of the best works of African-American film studies to come out in years. Many of us who have found the work of David Bogle (Toms, Mammies, Mulattoes, Bucks & Coons) wanting on several levels will have their prayers answered with Robinson's impeccable scholarship and far-reaching analysis of the changing perceptions and representations of African-Americans after the Civil War, Reconstruction and the release of Griffith's BIRTH OF A NATION (1915). What was important for me in reading this book was Robinson's astute ability to discern the origins of the specific caricatures of African-Americans in the traveling minstral shows that circulated throughout the country before the invention of cinema. He also reveals how early American Cinema was predicated upon these caricatures of African-Americans as a revenue generating source of "entertainment". He then reveals how these caricatures were employed by African-American actors as a means to gain employment within the movie industry. The chapters on early American Theatre, Oscar Micheaux, and The Birth of a Nation are the best written efforts I've read in years: fresh and full of new insights. Robinson discusses the duplicitous nature of minstrelsy for whites and African-Americans. This was a throughly engrossing read and a book that will be referenced by scholars, students and filmmakers for years to come.
|
