Michael Jackson’s Radical Aesthetic: Volume One: How His Early Films

Description

This two- volume work encourages students, fans, and scholars to take an expansive view of Michael Jackson’s art. Focusing on his films, which it approaches as exquisite works of art as well as a theoretical framework for interpreting his other work, it demonstrates the depth and scope of his art and its far- reaching cultural significance. Specifically, it demonstrates how Jackson engaged in a... Read more

This two- volume work encourages students, fans, and scholars to take an expansive view of Michael Jackson’s art. Focusing on his films, which it approaches as exquisite works of art as well as a theoretical framework for interpreting his other work, it demonstrates the depth and scope of his art and its far- reaching cultural significance. Specifically, it demonstrates how Jackson engaged in a sophisticated process of telling, untelling, and retelling entrenched cultural narratives that perpetuate prejudice, and how he modified affective responses to racial signifiers and other marks of difference. In this way, Jackson confronted prejudice more profoundly than any other American artist in recent memory.

This work also takes a detailed look at the allegations of child sexual abuse. These were so shattering for Jackson both personally and creatively that his life and career divide into two parts – a division reflected in the two- volume structure of this work. Volume One focuses on Jackson’s early films followed by analysis of the allegations, including historical factors that may have influenced how the police, press, and public reacted. Volume Two then focuses on the art Jackson created in response, including some of the most poignant, political, and significant work of his career.

Volume Two also looks at evolving perceptions of Jackson’s face and persona, approaching them as revolutionary yet deeply troubling works of art – works that became even more unsettling as Jackson wrestled with the intense emotions unleashed by the abuse allegations. It posits that popular perceptions of Jackson’s face and persona were illusions that performed critically important cultural functions, and that Jackson himself – the man behind the illusion – was a trickster artist. It concludes that Jackson was the most important American artist of our time, and that his face was his masterpiece. However, it only arrives at these conclusions after careful analysis of his films. It’s through his films that Jackson articulates his aesthetic. Therefore, it’s his films that make his face legible.

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Author(s)

Biography

Willa Stillwater co- founded and serves as co- author and co- editor of Dancing with the Elephant (dancingwiththeelephant.wordpress.com), a blog devoted to fostering conversations about Michael Jackson, his art, and social change. Stillwater has a PhD in English, and her doctoral research focused on the many ways cultural narratives are made real by being inscribed on the body, which she sees as an important concept in Michael Jackson’s work.

Critics' Reviews

This compendium of Michael Jackson’s visual art is remarkable and revealing. Through intense research and rich interpretation, Stillwater examines Jackson’s work, from his short films to his physical body, as both artistic expression and a means of challenging long-held cultural narratives. The overarching story Stillwater tells is one of history, race and power. It is a story that celebrates the scope of popular art and, more specifically, Black popular art as an agent of social change. This is an extraordinary project that befits an exceptional artist and a phenomenal body of work.

Harriet J. Manning, author of Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask

Michael Jackson’s Radical Aesthetic Volume One: How His Early Films Challenged and Changed White America

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

Critics' Reviews

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