Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Blacks in Cinema/Jazz Singer & Gone With the Wind. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper that looks at The Jazz Singer and Gone With the Wind as pivotal films in cinematic history for black actors. The writer discusses also how these films relate to nineteenth century minstrel troupes and the mythos that was used as rationalization for black subjugation. Bibliography lists 1 source.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khjsgwtw.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
tread a rather schizophrenic tightrope. One of the ways that whites negotiated this troubled psychic area was through minstrelsy. Troupes of white minstrels darkened their faces with burnt cork to
better mock and caricaturize plantation slaves. In so doing, they created a mythos that not only served to help rationalize slavery, but also continued into the twentieth century as a
means of rationalization for the continued disenfranchisement and abuse of African American citizens. This can clearly be seen in the motion picture industry. Blackface tradition was introduced early into
movies (Bogle 25). When Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer dropped to one knee and crooned "Mammie" in blackface, audiences thrilled to actually hear a human voice accompanying the flickering
images on screen. The film was an enormous success and launched the talking motion-picture era (Bogle 25). While Jolson was only pretending to be black, it turned out that
the new talkie era was a period of prolific employment for African American entertainers. From 1927 to 1940, the number of blacks in films greatly increased. Hollywood was exploring
the possibilities inherent in this new entertainment and this meant that film needed sound and lots of it -- "music, rhythm, pizzazz, singing, dancing, clowning" (Bogle 26). According to American
mythos, Negroes were naturally more musical, more rhythmic, and better dancers than any other group. Therefore the studios scurried to take advantage of this "natural" talent while simultaneously milking every
stock stereotype for as much pathos as possible. The result was that films were produced with black actors (which was good in that it gave black actors employment),
but these films were directed by whites, scripted by whites, directed and costumed by whites, so that the result was "black life" but as seen through the eyes of white
...