Literary adaptations in Black American cinema
By: Barbara Tepa Lupack
Edition: Expanded ed.
Publisher: The University of Rochester Press; BOYE6; University of Rochester Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Rochester
Language: eng
Number of pages: 612
ISBN-13: 9781580463720; 9781580461030
Description: "The cinematic representation of blacks, especially in silent and early film, was shaped not only by the sentimental racism of the culture but also by the popular literature that distorted black experience and restricted black characters to minor, stereotyped roles.

By contrast, in the works of black writers from Oscar Micheaux to Toni Morrison, the black experience has been more fully, more accurately, and usually more sympathetically realized; and from the early days of film, select filmmakers have looked to that literature as the basis for their productions.".

"An historical examination of the practice of such adaptation offers telling insights into the portrayal - and progress - of blacks in American movies and culture. It reveals that while blacks, on screen and behind the scenes, were often forced to re-create the demeaning film stereotypes, they learned how to subvert and exploit the artificiality of their caricatures.

It also reveals the ways that black filmmakers, beginning with Micheaux, Noble and George Johnson, and their less prominent colleagues like Emmett Scott, worked within the conventions of cinema and society yet managed to produce films that were, at their best, unconventional and pioneering. It demonstrates that as far back as the 1920s and 1930s, black authors like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes already recognized the need for involvement with film production in order to create pictures that were more representative of black life. It illustrates the fact that, in recent years, as more black voices found their way to the screen, among the strongest were the voices of women.

And above all, it confirms that within the rich tradition of black literature of all genres lie many exciting cinematic possibilities for audiences of all colors."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes filmography.
Table of contents: title: The birth of defamation : Uncle Tom's cabin and the beginnings of black stereotyping; title: "A credit to the race" : Oscar Micheaux and early race filmmaking; title: "We'll teach him fear" : racial representation in sound films of the 1930s and 1940s; title: Uncle Tom meets Uncle Sam : wartime developments and postwar progress; title: From Eisenhower to black power : radicalizing the black hero; title: "Tell them I'm a man" : popularizing black history; title: History to herstory : new voices for a new century.