Technicolored : reflections on race in the time of TV / Ann duCille.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DuCille, Ann, author.

Series:

Camera obscura book (Duke University Press)

A Camera Obscura book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans on television.

Race on television.

Racism on television.

Television programs--United States.

Television programs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 340 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2018.

Summary:

From early sitcoms such as I Love Lucy to contemporary prime-time dramas like Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, African Americans on television have too often been asked to portray tired stereotypes of blacks as villains, vixens, victims, and disposable minorities. In Technicolored black feminist critic Ann duCille combines cultural critique with personal reflections on growing up with the new medium of TV to examine how televisual representations of African Americans have changed over the last sixty years. Whether explaining how watching Shirley Temple led her to question her own self-worth or how televisual representation functions as a form of racial profiling, duCille traces the real-life social and political repercussions of the portrayal and presence of African Americans on television. Neither a conventional memoir nor a traditional media study, Technicolored offers one lifelong television watcher's careful, personal, and timely analysis of how television continues to shape notions of race in the American imagination.

Contents:

Introduction: Black and white and technicolored : channeling the TV life

What's in a game? : Quiz shows and the "prism of race"

"Those thrilling days of yesteryear" : stigmatic blackness and the rise of technicolored TV

The Shirley Temple of my familiar : take two

Interracial Loving : sexlessness in the suburbs of the 1960s

"A credit to my race" : acting Black and Black acting from Julia to Scandal

A clear and present absence : Perry Mason and the case of the missing "minorities"

"Soaploitation" : getting away with murder in primetime

The Punch and Judge Judy shows : really real TV and the dangers of a day in court

The autumn of his discontent : Bill Cosby, fatherhood, and the politics of palatability

The "thug default" : why racial representation still matters

Epilogue: Final spin : "That's not my food."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781478002215

1478002212

OCLC:

1061003913