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Hyatt, Marshall. “Film as a Medium to Study the Twentieth-Century Afro-American Experience.” The Journal of Negro Education Vol. 53, No. 2 (Spring, 19804): pp. 161-172. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2294817 >.
The article discusses the significance of film in American culture though its ability to reflect and interpret society. However, according to Hyatt, a film must be viewed by analyzing it within the context of the atmosphere of opinion of the nation at the time of its creation. The author feels that cinema offers great opportunities for the teaching and learning of African-American history, believing that students will learn to cope more effectively with their own social roles as a result of having the experience of watching and discussing the cinematic representation of the struggles and triumphs of African-Americans. Discussing the 1930s, Hyatt argues that in order to find more positive images on the screen, one had to look beyond Hollywood. Films such as Gone With the Wind (1939) and Imitation of Life (1934) reinforce the use of blacks as domestic servants, using Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers, respectively. The article goes on to specify Beavers’ role in the film. She labors long and hard for her white mistress and helps her become wealthy, refusing her share of the fortune. Thus, the film ultimately instructs African Americans to know their place vis-à-vis white society.
Hyatt’s text suggests that selected films reflecting the diversity of the African-American experience in the United States, such as Imitation of Life, be used, along with selected readings, to teach twentieth-century African-American history to college students. He contends that the film, although it shows marginalized portrayals of African Americans, can be challenged. Once again, the notion of questioning what is seen on screen is discussed. He argues that these various serotypes are as a result of the political and racial climate of the time that it was produced, and that in order for them to be overcome, they must be examined and discussed.
tagged social_roles students study by jasminen ...on 02-DEC-08
The essay states, “violence is the key to the rule of power” (708) and shows how mostly men and white characters use violence to capture their dominance. The research in the essay shows that heavy television viewing results in a fear of violence along with a misjudgment of the amount of violence around us. The essay concludes by saying that violence has become the easiest way for television creators to create drama due to censorship laws.
Although this essay has nothing to do with Bonnie and Clyde, the study on the consequences of violence through 1960s television is important in understanding the films plentiful use of violence. There was no doubt that violence was prominent in the 1960s with images of the Vietnam War and civil rights movements dominating the screens of the American people. Bonnie and Clyde took advantage of the American obsession with visual violence, but did so in a way that justified and glamorized violence. Although the effects that the essay claims appear from watching excessive television, Bonnie and Clyde appealed to an audience that was already overwhelmed with violence, and was eager to welcome the camp portrayal of murder and death. And the essay’s assertion that power arises from violence, Bonnie and Clyde is the supreme example because of the overwhelming pop culture influence that the original pair and film had on the cinema as a whole as well as the public’s expectations of violence and censorship.
tagged 60s communications entertainment media power research study violence by mrsilva ...on 10-APR-08
Cherneff, Jill BR. " Dreams Are Made like This: Hortense Powdermaker and the Hollywood Film Industry." Journal of Anthropological Research. Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 1991), pp.429-440. JSTOR. 9 Apr. 2008. <http://www.jstor.org/action/showArticle?doi=10.2307/3630352&Search=yes&term=dreams&term=hollywood&item=5&returnArticleService=showArticle&ttl=3533&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dhollywood%2Bdreams;gw%3Djtx;prq%3Djeepers%2Bcreepers;Search%3DSearch;hp%3D25>.
This article largely chronicles and responds to Hortense Powdermaker’s study of Hollywood culture in the late 1940s. In the book, she wrote following her study, Powdermaker highlights the struggle between art and business and Hollywood and suggests the social underpinnings of Hollywood culture determine what types of films are made. Powdermaker’s original contention is that the Hollywood film has had an impact on human behavior as dramatic as that of the wheel’s invention. Powdermaker observed that the power of movies lies in it’s depiction of apparent reality—that what appears on the screen looks real and thus must accompany real values and ideas to be absorbed. The remainder of the article focuses less on Powdermaker’s conclusions and research in order to focus on analyzing the research itself. The author discusses the challenges facing Powdermaker in reporting on a population unlike those most anthropologists focus on. Further, the author notices the absence of women in important roles behind the lens in Powdermaker’s research and contextualizes this historically as well as socially.
On a superficial level, it is interesting how Powdermaker’s journey in conducting her research mirrors that of Tod in the film The Day of the Locust. Both leave a successful endeavor at Yale and go to Hollywood for a sociological investigation of sorts—Powdermaker an unbiased anthropological study and Tod an emotional snapshot of Hollywood’s locusts. Some of Powdermaker’s research sheds light on the images of the industry contained in the film, such as the hierarchy of production and the social constructs behind the films.
tagged anthropolgy hollywood industry social study women by emrici ...on 10-APR-08