Pennsylvania State University
August 2009
122 pages
Dorian Randall
A Thesis in Media Studies by Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts
Race is a complicated and debatable term in the United States today. Film is one venue in which the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of race is challenged, particularly with representations of minstrelsy and episodes of racial passing that also evolve into performance of class distinctions. Through textual and rhetorical analysis, I chronicled the evolution of minstrelsy as a form of racial passing through a cinematic lens and demonstrated how the racial/class performance creates multiracial identity in the films’ characters. The purpose of this research is to add to the continuing analysis and investigation of racial passing and minstrelsy by evaluating the construction of multiracial identity in monoracial characters that perform a race other than their own in the films under analysis. This study also reveals how the definition of race evolved through class performance as race and class are heavily related terms.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Literature Review Part I: A Brief History of Slavery
- 3. Literature Review Part II: Minstrelsy and Racial Passing
- 4. Burnt Cork Cinema: From Black and White to Color
- 5. Fade into White: Passing Films
- 6. Class Act: Race/Class Films
- 7. Conclusion
- Bibliography
Read the entire thesis here.