{"id":515,"date":"2017-02-08T08:26:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T08:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=515"},"modified":"2017-02-08T08:26:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T08:26:37","slug":"the-birth-of-a-nation-melodrama-of-black-and-white-and-early-race-filmmaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/02\/08\/the-birth-of-a-nation-melodrama-of-black-and-white-and-early-race-filmmaking\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Birth of a Nation, Melodrama of Black and White, and Early Race Filmmaking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In Linda Williams’ essay, “The Birth of a Nation<\/em>, Melodrama of Black and White, and Early Filmmaking,” Williams explores the “melodrama of black and white,” which she describes as the reversals of stereotypes, protagonist to antagonist, of African Americans and Caucasian peoples across American history (Williams 38). She examines how this is represented in early film by looking at the narratives of Uncle Tom’s Cabin,<\/em> The Birth of a Nation, and <\/em>Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates. <\/em>What Williams further finds, and is most prominent in her discussion, is the evolution of the racially charged stereotypes and representations of African Americans in the silent film era; staged by both races. These melodramas of black and white are something that Williams considers to be ongoing and active in our current time.<\/p>\n

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Williams begins by discussing the influential novel by Harriet Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, <\/em>and how Stowe’s representation of “Uncle Tom” created a pathetical stereotype of the black person during its time; it’s often accredited for helping lay the groundwork for the Civil War. Stowe’s protagonist, yet still loyal to him, is abused by his master in a heart wrenching scene. This Tom-stereotype continually represented in theatre work and in film, gave the black community humanity in the eyes of the white people. Later, this melodrama of black and white altered drastically.<\/p>\n

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In D.W. Griffith’s silent film The Birth of a Nation, <\/em>based on Thomas Dixon’s novel The Clansman, <\/em>Griffith represents the African American man as a violent villain and rapist. In contrast, the white men were shown to be heroes that protected their vulnerable women from the hands of the black man. Even more, the violent lynchings committed by these white men were shown as reasonably justified. As a nationally acclaimed film, Williams states that it created a greater sense of unity among Northern and Southern white Americans against the black community.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In response, Oscar Micheaux’s race film, Within Our Gates,<\/em> reverses the black stereotype once again and is more reminiscent of the Tom-stereotype. Although, Williams argues that Micheaux doesn’t simply represent the African American in a protagonist light, but combines both the Uncle Tom and Birth<\/em> stereotypes. In his film, Micheaux features violent black individuals alongside educated, upstanding black characters. Additionally, Micheaux includes a rich white woman whom helps Sylvia, his main character, in her financial endeavor, Sylvia’s white father who attempted to rape her, and the promotion of African American education. All these characters and elements come together to represent the struggles of a black person, ultimately humanizing the community for the audience.<\/p>\n

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In all these cases, Williams aims to expose the nature and history of the melodrama of black and white in American. She concludes that, whether presented through film or today’s social media, this melodrama of rearranging racial stereotypes still exists and “the story continues…” (Routledge 51).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Linda Williams’ essay, “The Birth of a Nation, Melodrama of Black and White, and Early Filmmaking,” Williams explores the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}