COMM 458 - University of Southern California



COMM 458: Race & Ethnicity in Entertainment and the Arts

Spring 2009: Monday/Wednesday, 10-11:50 am, G-34

Professor Vincent Brook

Office Hour: Wednesday 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Office: ASC 227

Phone: 323-666-6715

Email: vbrook@

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Together we will examine the construction of race and ethnicity in American culture, focusing on popular entertainment, most particularly film and television. Cultural representations of ethno-racial groups in the United States will be examined individually (e.g., Native Americans, African Americans, Latino/a Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans) and in relation to one another. Always bearing in mind the complex interconnection between representation (text) and social conditions (context), we will pay close attention to the ways in which ethno-racial images both reflect and affect people’s lived experience.

As the above short-list of ethno-racial groups indicates, the course will emphasize marginalized or “aggrieved” ethno-racial minorities—those which have been disproportionately oppressed, exploited, and discriminated against in this country. The role of Whiteness in the formation of ethno-racial “otherness” will also be explored, however, as will be Whiteness as an ethno-racial category.

Issues of race and ethnicity invariably intersect with those of class, gender, and sexual orientation, particularly in our multicultural age. Additionally, the functions of race and ethnicity both on and behind movie/TV screens will be confronted—here, especially, in regard to the perception and reality of Jewish dominance in (to be distinguished from control of) the communication media. How power relations within the media industries impact the ability of minority groups to get a cultural “fair shake” will be another important facet of the course.

We will culminate with a discussion of David Hollinger’s notion of “postethnicity,” an emergent ethno-racial construct deriving from the discourse of multiculturalism that posits neither a denial nor a transcendence of difference but rather a coalescing and coalitioning of ethno-racial forces to achieve mutually beneficial ends.

The course will be a challenging and provocative but hopefully also an illuminating experience, broadening horizons, heightening sensitivities, and preparing all of us to become more astute observers and perhaps also progressive shapers of American culture.

REQUIRED TEXTS/READINGS:

Herman Gray, Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for Blackness

Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s

Course Reader (CR), available through Mozena Publishing: 800-444-8398

SUPPLIMENTARY TEXTS:

Angela Aleiss, Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies

Charles Ramirez Berg, Latino Images in Film

Daniel Bernardi, ed., The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of U.S. Cinema

Donald Bogle, Blacks in American Film and Television

Donald Bogle, Prime Time Blues: African Americans on Network Television

Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films

Todd Boyd, The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop

Vincent Brook, Something Ain’t Kosher Here: The Rise of the “Jewish” Sitcom

Louis Chude-Sokei, The Last Darky: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora

Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefanic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction

Richard Delgado and Jean Stefanacic, eds., Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror

Manthia Diawara, ed., Black American Cinema

Debra J. Dickerson, The End of Blackness

Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, eds., Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text Reader

Anna Everett, Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909-1949

Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

Peter Feng, ed., Screening Asian Americans

John Fiske, Media Matters: Race and Gender in U.S. Politics

Ruth Frankenberg, ed., Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism

Lester D. Friedman, ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema

Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film

Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Politics of Experience

Darrell Y. Hamamoto and Sandra Lui, eds., Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism

Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style

David Hollinger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism

Darnell Hunt, ed., Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America

Sut Jahlly and Justin Lewis, Enlightened Racism: “The Cosby Show,” Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream

Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America

George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics

Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class

Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics

J. Fred MacDonald, Black and White TV: African Americans in Television since 1948

Norman Mailer, The White Negro

Gina Marchetti, Romance and the Yellow Peril: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction

Hamid Naficy, The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles

Chin Noriega, Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema

Chon Noriega, ed., Chicanos and Film: Representation and Resistance

Chon Noriega and Ana Lopez, eds., Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts

Christina Pieraccini and Douglass L. Alligood, ed., Color Television: Fifty Years of African American and Latino Images on Prime Time Television

Jesse Algeron Rhines, Black Film/White Money

Clara Rodriguez, ed., Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media

Richard Rodriquez, Brown: The Last Discovery of America

David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class

Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot

Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, eds., Hollywood’s Indians: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film

Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America

Edward W. Said, Orientalism

Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media

Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television

James Snead, White Screen, Black Images: Hollywood from the Dark Side

Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity

Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Greg Tate, Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture

Sasha Torres, ed., Living Color: Race and Television in the United States

Clint C. Wilson II, Felix Gutierrez, and Lena M. Chao, Racism, Sexism, and the Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America

Sharon Willis, High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary American Film

Gladstone L. Yearwood, Black Film as a Signifying Practice: Cinema and the African-American Aesthetic Tradition

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

• All assignments must be completed to receive a grade for the class.

• Late papers or assignments will be graded down 1/3 grade for the first late day, and an additional 1/3 grade for every additional two late days.

• Good attendance and punctuality are expected. Absences not only affect your class participation grade but can affect your overall grade as well. Missing 10 or more classes results in an automatic Fail.

• Punctuality factors into attendance. Arriving noticeably late or leaving early (unexcused) results in 1/2 of an absence.

• Class participation is strongly encouraged, and can affect your grade positively (see Evaluation).

EVALUATION:

Final Paper Prospectus: 5%

Final Paper: 20%

Midterm Exam: 25%

Final Exam: 25%

Class Presentation and Abstract: 15%

Class Participation: 10%

GRADING:

97-100% = A+, 93-96% = A, 90-92% = A-, 87-89% = B+, etc.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

SCHEDULE AND AGENDA

(Most screenings are clips rather than full films or TV shows and,

as with the listed readings, are subject to change)

WEEK 1

Mon., Jan. 12

Introduction

Screening: Rabit-Proof Fence

Wed., Jan. 14

The “Indian Question”

Reading: Noriega, “Birth of the Southwest” (CR)

Screening: Ramona

WEEK 2

Mon., Jan. 19

NO CLASS: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

Wed., Jan. 21

The “Indian Question,” continued

Reading: Aleiss, Chs. 1, 8, and “Conclusion” (CR); Amanda J. Cobb, “What It Means to Say Smoke Signals” (CR)

Screening: Smoke Signals

WEEK 3

Mon., Jan. 26

Blackface, White Noise

Reading: Chude-Sokei, Intro, Ch. 3 (CR)

Screening: The Jazz Singer

Wed., Jan. 28

Racism in Early American Cinema

Reading: Bogel, Ch. 1; Taylor, “The Re-Birth of the Aesthetic in Cinema” (CR); Campbell and Oakes, “The Invention of Race: Rereading White Over Black”

Screening: D.W. Griffith documentary

WEEK 4

Mon., Feb. 2

Racism in Early American Cinema, continued

Reading: Omi and Winant, Ch. 4-5; Bowser and Spence, “Identity and Betrayal” (CR)

Screening: Midnight Ramble

Wed., Feb. 4

Blacks in Film after The Birth of a Nation

Reading: Omi and Winant, Ch. 6-7; Guerrero, Chs. 1, 3 (CR)

Screening: Mandingo

WEEK 5

Mon., Feb. 9

Black Television

Reading: Gray, Ch. 1-3

Screening: Color Adjustment (Part 1)

Wed., Feb. 11

Black Sitcoms: Separate But Equal, Assimilationist

Reading: Gray, Ch. 4-5; Bodrogkhozy, “Is This What You Mean by Color TV?” (CR)

Screening: Color Adjustment (Part 2)

WEEK 6

Mon., Feb. 16

NO CLASS: PRESIDENT’S DAY

Wed., Feb. 18

Black Sitcoms: Multicultural

Reading: Gray, Ch. 6-8

Screening: Frank’s Place

WEEK 7

Mon., Feb. 23

Black TV Now

Reading: Gray, Ch. 9-10; Zook, “The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television”

Screening: The Dave Chappelle Show

Wed., Feb. 25

Black Female Representation

Reading: (CR); Banet-Weiser, “Bodies of Difference” (CR); Gates, “Always a Partner in Crime” (CR)

Screening: School Daze, Jungle Fever

WEEK 8

Mon., Mar. 2

FBlack Female Representation, continued

Reading: Reeves, “Re-Covering Racism: Crack Mothers, Reganism, and the Network News”

(CR); Zook, “Living Single and the ‘Fight for Mr. Right’” (CR)

Screening: Daughters of the Dust

Wed., Mar. 4

Review for Midterm

WEEK 9

Mon., Mar. 9

FIRST MIDTERM EXAM

Wed., Mar. 11

Brown-ness, Introduction

Reading: Perea, “Los Olvidados: On the Making of an Invisible People” (CR)

Screening: The Bronze Screen (Part 1)

WEEK 10

Mon., Mar. 16

NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK

Wed., Mar. 18

NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK

WEEK 11

Mon., Mar. 23

Brown-ness, continued

Reading: Ramirez-Berg, Ch. 3 (CR)

Screening: The Bronze Screen (Part 2)

Wed., Mar. 25

The Semiotics of Stereotyping

Reading: Ramirez-Berg, Ch. 1-2 (CR)

Screening: Falling Down

WEEK 12

Mon., Mar. 30

Latina Representation

Reading: Kim, “The Latina Maid on Network Television” (CR)

Screening: Salt of the Earth: Part 1

Wed., April 1

The Cases of Nancy Kwan and Linda Liu

Reading: Chyng Feng Sun, “Ling Woo in Historical Context: The New Face of Asian American Stereotypes on Television” (CR)

Screening: Charlotte Sometimes; Cooleyville

WEEK 13

Mon., April 6

Gay Latina/o Representation

Reading: Esteban Munoz, “Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter-publicity” (CR)

Screening: Salt of the Earth: Part 2

TERM PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE!

Wed., April 8

Asian-ness and the Case of Sessue Hayakawa

Reading: Higashi, “Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Film: De Mille’s The Cheat”

Screening: The Cheat

WEEK 14

Mon., April 13

The Case of Anna Mae Wong

Reading: Liu, “When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies? Re- Imagining Anna Mae Wong” (CR)

Screening: Slaying the Dragon

Wed., April 15

The Cases of Charlie Chan, Judge Ito, and Kung Fu

Reading: Locke, “Here Comes the Judge: The Dancing Itos and the Televisual Construction of the Enemy Asian Male” (CR); Minh-Ha T. Pham, “The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood” (CR)

Screening: Charlie Chan film and Better Luck Tomorrow

WEEK 15

Mon., April 20

The White Negro

Reading: Mailer, The White Negro (CR); Rux, “Eminem: The New White Negro” (CR)

Screening: Peggy Sue Got Married; Bamboozled; Eight Mile; Whoopi

TERM PAPER DUE!

Wed., April 22

Shades of Whiteness

Reading: Mahoney, “The Social Construction of Whiteness” (CR); Barrett and Roediger, “How White People Became White” (CR); Gallagher, “White Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century” (CR); Graham “The End of the Great White Male” (CR)

Screening: TBA

WEEK 16

Mon., April 27

How the Jews Became White Folks

Reading: Brook, “Virtual Ethnicity: Incorporation, Diversity, and the Contemporary ‘Jewish’ Sitcom” (CR)

Screening: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sarah Silverman

Wed., April 29

SECOND MIDTERM EXAM

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download