Bette Davis was not only one of Hollywood's brightest stars, but also one of its most outspoken advocates on matters of race. In Bette Davis Black and White, Julia A. Stern explores this largely untold facet of Davis's brilliant career.
Bette Davis Black and White analyzes four of Davis's best-known pictures-Jezebel (1938), The Little Foxes (1941), In This Our Life (1942), and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)-against the history of American race relations. Stern also weaves in memories of her own experiences as a young viewer, coming into racial consciousness watching Davis's films on television in an all-white suburb of Chicago.
Davis's egalitarian politics and unique collaborations with her Black costars offer Stern a window into midcentury American racial fantasy and the efforts of Black performers to disrupt it. This book incorporates testimony from Davis's Black contemporaries, including James Baldwin and C. L. R. James, as well as the African American fans who penned letters to Warner Brothers praising Davis's work. A unique combination of history, star study, and memoir, Bette Davis Black and White allows us to contemplate cross-racial spectatorship in new ways.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"A prescient book about white people who mean well but fall short . . . There is no other book in which the author takes herself as the object of reception study and, in so doing, exposes the lived aspect of the US race and class divide. The reader who is initially drawn to this book because of a fascination with stardom will find a deeply insightful, impeccably researched study of American culture."--Jane Gaines, author of Pink-Slipped: What Happened to Women in the Silent Film Industries? "A unique take on the work of Bette Davis, Bette Davis Black and White is important not only for extending an understanding of the actor's racial politics, attitudes and practices, but also for raising the profile of several important, but largely unknown, Black supporting actors. This book will appeal strongly to scholars of race, twentieth-century American history, film audiences, and fan studies."--Martin Shingler, author of Star Studies: A Critical Guide
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
The University of Chicago Press
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Maße
Höhe: 140 mm
Breite: 215 mm
Dicke: 20 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-226-81386-8 (9780226813868)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Julia A. Stern is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence and professor of English at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Plight of Feeling: Sympathy and Dissent in the Early American Novel and Mary Chesnut's Civil War Epic, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
Historical Note
Chapter 1 Introduction: Black and White
Chapter 2 Little Foxes and Little Brown Wrens
Chapter 3 The Poetics of Color in Jezebel
Chapter 4 Melodramas of Blood in In This Our Life
Chapter 5 The Whiteness of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Chapter 6 Bette Davis Black and White
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
