Manthia Diawara's "Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance"
TLDRThe script discusses the evolution of film spectatorship theory and its limitations in accounting for diverse audiences. It focuses on scholar Manthia Diawara's ideas about 'resisting spectatorship' among Black audiences, using explicitly racist films like Birth of a Nation and seemingly innocuous 80s comedies as examples. Diawara argues that the experience of structural racism in the US prevents Black spectators from easily identifying with white protagonists or narratives, leading them toward more critical viewing stances. The script traces responses and extensions to Diawara's theories from other theorists examining gender, sexuality, and intersectionality in spectatorship.
Takeaways
- 😀 Diawara criticizes film theories of identification for assuming a universal subjectivity that ignores differences like race
- 😮 Diawara sees identification theories as limited because subjects are socially/historically constituted beyond just psychically
- 🤔 Diawara questions whether black spectators' experiences are included in psychoanalytic identification theories
- 😠 Diawara argues classical Hollywood situates black characters for the pleasure of white spectators
- 😯 Diawara moves from overtly racist films like Birth of a Nation to popular 80s films with black stars
- 😑 Diawara says films with black protagonists are still racist in subtler ways catering to white audiences
- 😒 Diawara argues black spectators occupy a resisting mode of spectatorship
- 🧐 A resisting spectatorship prevents identification per film theories
- 😌 Diawara shows why black spectators can't identify with black protagonists
- 🏁 Diawara wants to rethink how identification works based on race & resistant spectatorship
Q & A
What is the main argument that Diawara makes about black spectatorship?
-Diawara argues that black spectators occupy a position of 'resisting spectatorship', meaning they are less likely to identify with racist portrayals of black characters and more likely to critique the racist assumptions behind such portrayals.
How does Diawara build on and critique previous theories of spectatorship like those of Mulvey?
-Diawara argues that previous theories focused too much on gender and the 'universal subject', failing to account for how race shapes the spectating experience. He shows how black spectators relate differently to films than the white spectator presumed by such theories.
What does Diawara mean when he talks about the 'dominant reading' of a film like Birth of a Nation?
-The 'dominant reading' refers to the racist meaning embedded in and intended by the film - the validation of the Ku Klux Klan. Diawara argues a black spectator would be unlikely to identify with this reading.
How does Diawara use contemporary mainstream Hollywood films as examples?
-Even popular films of the 1980s that feature black actors/protagonists end up reifying white norms and perspectives, failing to truly reflect black experiences. Diawara sees them as still racist, just more subtlely so.
What stance does Diawara take on the possibility of 'internalized racism' among black spectators?
-Diawara acknowledges this is a possibility but feels it is unlikely for wholesale indoctrination of racist ideology to occur among black spectators of even overtly racist films.
How might Bell Hooks critique elements of Diawara's argument about black male spectatorship?
-Hooks argued that black women were even more marginalized onscreen and as spectators. She might thus critique Diawara's focus on the black male perspective.
What examples of resisting spectatorship appear later in the course readings?
-The concepts of the 'oppositional gaze' in Hooks and identification with the monster in readings on Get Out offer more examples of resisting dominant media narratives.
How do Evans and Gaime represent a critique of identity-based spectatorship theories in general?
-They argue that queer theory complicates assumptions about stable identities - thus questioning the entire project of theorizing spectatorship based strictly on fixed categories like race/gender.
What real world protests provide examples of resisting spectatorship in practice?
-Diawara references protests over racist films like Birth of a Nation and The Color Purple as examples of black audiences resisting dominant interpretations.
How might online spaces enable new forms of resisting spectatorship?
-Social media enables collective critique and rejection of racist media texts by marginalized groups - YouTube reaction videos offer examples of this.
Outlines
🎥 Introducing Diawara's essay as a response to spectatorship theory
This paragraph introduces Diawara's essay "Black Spectatorship: Problems of Identification and Resistance" as a response to previous spectatorship theories, especially Mulvey's theory that cinema interpolates all spectators into the position of the white male viewer. Diawara questions whether the experiences of black spectators are accounted for in these theories and poses the issue of the limits of theories of identification in film theory.
👀 A history of evolving spectatorship theories
This paragraph provides background by outlining the evolution of spectatorship theories, starting with Baudry's idea that cinema makes you a subject, followed by Mulvey's critique that it addresses you as a masculine subject. Then Diawara argues it addresses you as a white subject, while bell hooks says as a white male subject. Evans and Gaiman complicate theories by considering sexuality and the idea of a queer spectator.
💪 Diawara's theory of resisting spectatorship
This paragraph focuses on Diawara's main intervention - his theory of resisting spectatorship for black viewers. He argues identification doesn't always work and uses Birth of a Nation and protests over The Color Purple as examples. He claims components like race lead to different readings of texts by black viewers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Spectatorship theory
💡Psychoanalysis
💡Identification
💡Resisting spectatorship
💡Ideology critique
💡Oppositional gaze
💡Subject position
💡Identity categories
💡Black spectatorship
💡The Color Purple
Highlights
Diawara questions the limits of identification theories from 1970s film theory
Diawara summarizes how psychoanalytic theory posits a 'universal subject' that ignores differences like race
Diawara argues that black spectators may constitute a case of 'resisting spectatorship'
Diawara chooses Birth of a Nation to show how dominant films can be read differently by black spectators
Diawara suggests reluctance of black spectators to identify with Birth of a Nation also explains protests against The Color Purple
Diawara is interested in how contemporary Hollywood films with black protagonists are still racist
Diawara examines comedies with Eddie Murphy and dramas like A Soldier's Story and The Color Purple
Diawara shows why these popular films are still white supremacist even with black casts/characters
Diawara argues a 'resistant mode of spectatorship' prevents identification for black viewers
Hooks responds to Diawara, noting blind spots in both Diawara and Mulvey's approaches
Evans and Gaime question stability of identity categories from a queer theory perspective
Diawara moves from overtly racist Birth of a Nation to popular 80s movies with black stars
Diawara shows ideological critiques of popular cinema assume a white audience
Diawara prevents identification in films with black protagonists using resistant spectatorship
Get Out and Illusions contain metaphors for resistant black spectatorship
Transcripts
Browse More Related Video
bell hooks's "The Oppositional Gaze" and Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017)
bell hooks's "Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators"
The Rabbit Hole of Conservative Kids' Books | Propaganda Deep Dive
Christian Metz's Semiotic Film Theory
Kuleshov, Eisenstein, and Soviet Montage Theory
Introductory Film Studies: Auteur Theory
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)
Thanks for rating: