1st Edition

The Persistence of Whiteness Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

Edited By Daniel Bernardi Copyright 2008
    416 Pages
    by Routledge

    416 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Persistence of Whiteness investigates the representation and narration of race in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Ideologies of class, ethnicity, gender, nation and sexuality are central concerns as are 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 Who’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-depth introduction, comprehensive bibliography and a helpful glossary of terms, thus providing students with an accessible and topical collection on race and ethnicity in contemporary cinema.

    Introduction: Race and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema  Part 1: Generic History  Manifest Myth-Making: Texas History in the Movies Charles Ramírez Berg  Mapping the Beach: Beach Movies, Exploitation Film and Geographies of Whiteness Josh Stenger  Boyz, Boyz, Boyz: New Black Cinema and Black Masculinity Keith M. Harris  Part 2: Anthropomorphism  Star Wars Episodes I-VI: Coyote and the Force of White Narrative Gabriel S. Estrada (Nahuatl)  The Whiteness of the Rings Sean Redmond  Neo Abolitionists, Colorblind Epistemologies and Black Politics: The Matrix Trilogy Tani Dianca Sanchez  Part 3: Blood & Bodies  Vampires of Color and the Performance of Multicultural Whiteness Dale Hudson  The Naked and the Dead: The Jewish Male Body and Masculinity in Sunshine and Enemy at the Gates Susan Hunt & Peter Lehman  Framing Jennifer Lopez: Mobilizing Race from the Wide Shot to the Close-Up Priscilla Peña Ovalle  Part 4: Desire to Desire  Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with Eldridge Cleaver & the Supreme Court, or Reforming Popular Racial Memory with Hepburn and Tracy Susan Courtney  Master-Slave Sex Acts: Mandingo and the Race/Sex Paradox Celine Parreñas Shimizu  The Tragedy of Whiteness and Neo-Liberalism in Brad Kaaya’s ‘O’/Othello Deborah Elizabeth Whaley  Romeo Must Die: Interracial Romance in Action Gina Marchetti  Part 5: Provocateurs  The Dark Side of Whiteness: Sweetback and John Dollard’s Idea of The Gains of the Lower Class Negroes Thomas Cripps  Black Like Him: Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple Lester D. Friedman  Crossover Diva: Whoopi Goldberg and Persona Politics Bambi L. Haggins  Surviving in Living Color with Some White Chicks: Whiteness in the Wayans’ (Black) Minds Beretta E. Smith-Shomade  Glossary to Terms

    Biography

    Daniel Bernardi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future (1998) and the editor of The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of US Cinema (1996) and Classic Hollywood, Classic Whiteness (2002).