Movies in the Age of Obama (eBook)

David Garrett Izzo is professor of English at Shaw University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Bruce Springsteen and the American Soul (2011) and Huxley’s Brave New World: Essays (2008).

IntroductionDavid Garrett IzzoPart I: Resonance from the Past: Experience Is Learned Backward But Must Be Lived ForwardChapter 1 - “I Really Need a Maid!” White Womanhood in The HelpKwakiutl L. DreherChapter 2 - Gwendolyn Brooks’s Bronzeville and Tate Taylor’s Jackson: “Art hurts. Art urges voyages—and it is easier to stay at home.”Blake G. HobbyChapter 3 - If Django and Lincoln Could Talk: James Baldwin Goes to the MoviesRobert McParlandChapter 4 - The Exceptional N*gger: Redefining African American Identity in Django UnchainedRodney M. D. FierceChapter 5 - Blaxploitation in the Age of Obama: Black Dynamite, Django Unchained, Racial Reasoning, and Racial CapitalismBrian E. ButlerChapter 6 - Between The Butler and Black Dynamite: Servility, Militancy, and the Meaning of BlaxploitationAndrew GrossmanChapter 7 - Rednecks, Racism, and Religion: King and Darabont’s Precarious Prophecy of Obama’s ComingVictoria McCollumPart II: The Present Is an Eternal Now Connecting Past and FutureChapter 8 - “I Am Trayvon Martin”: Obama and the Black Male in CinemaMohanalakshmi Rajakumar and Alisha SaiyedChapter 9 - Invictus: South Africa as a Post-racial Fantasy in the Age of ObamaSohinee RoyChapter 10 - “Mama, I Think I Broke Something”: Thinking about the Environment in Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern WildIrina NegreaChapter 11 - It’s Not a Wonderful Life: The Financial Crisis on Film and the Limits of Hollywood LiberalismPeter GrosvenorChapter 12 - Reimagining Barack Obama as Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s Film Adaptation of The Great GatsbyCammie SublettePart III: The Present Imagines the FutureChapter 13 - The Hunger Games, Race, and Social Class in Obama’s AmericaSonya C. BrownChapter 14 - Rise of the Planet of the People: Contradictions and Revolution in Rise of the Planet of the Apes doug morrisPart IV: The 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture: 12 Years a SlaveChapter 15 - “Under the Floorboards of This Nation”: Trauma, Representation, and the Stain of History in 12 Years a SlaveEd Cameron and Linda BelauChapter 16 - 162 Years after 12 Years a Slave: A Viewing through Double-ConsciousnessSalvador MurguiaChapter 17 - Revoking the Privilege of Forgetting: White Supremacy Interrogated in 12 Years a SlaveDavid M. JonesChapter 18 - No, You Can’t: Passive Protagonists in The Blind Side, Django Unchained, and 12 Years a SlaveThomas BrittIndexAbout the Editor and Contributors