Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation: classical Hollywood cinema or independent rebellion?

The depiction of racial minorities such as African Americans has changed over the last decades and the film industry is experiencing a period of transition towards new images of black identity. In this context, my article explores the complexities of Nate Parker’s cinematic slave narrative The Birth of a Nation (2016). Parker’s choices are constantly guided by reimagining, revising, and reclaiming the (hi)story and the representation of African Americans. I argue that, although Parker attempts to set his film up as an oppositional force to D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915), his employment of a style that is heavily reliant on the conventions of classical narrative storytelling makes such aspirations problematic. This article demonstrates Parker’s use of classical features and considers whether he subverts the dominant mode by creating an independent black film, or whether his message is weakened by his reliance on (white) industry standards

Screening race: constructions and reconstructions in twenty-first century media

Racial minorities have long been excluded, marginalised and misrepresented on the big and the small screen. Often, the representation of ethnic minorities is lacking authenticity and is still characterised by decades-old stereotypes. Our increasingly diverse global society is still not reflected in the shows and films we see on TV or in the cinema. However, the representation of race has changed over the last decade. The shifting global political and societal milieu has contributed to a slow rise and an increased presence of minorities on screen, which has generally been greeted by a wave of enthusiasm. Social concerns such as the accumulation of frustrations and racial tension on an international level, Donald Trump’s presidency and the exhausting election campaigns in the US and Europe have characterised 2016–17. In a time of police brutality and resurging white nationalism, new films and TV shows ignite public discussion about race and the role of minority groups in the twenty-first century

The medi(atis)ation of the slave experience: a journey from page to screen

Considering the increase in slave films in recent years, this interdisciplinary project explores the cross-generic development of nineteenth-century slave narratives into their contemporary cinematic iterations. Continuities and changes in the (self-) representation of African Americans are interrogated in two specific cinematic slave narratives: Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation (2016). My argument draws on theories of race, film analysis and intertextuality, specifically adaptation and the black tradition of Signifyin(g), to examine the network of intertexts that influences these films. Key areas considered include the representation of slavery, gender, race, the black body and sexual violence on and off screen. I also trace the conventions of the slave narrative across mediums and discuss the complex nature of authorship and authenticity. Assessing the close connection between the different narrative forms across three centuries, my research shows filmmakers of cinematic slave narratives to be modern-day mediators of the slave experience, similar to the amanuenses of their literary predecessors. This thesis therefore explores how motivations behind the production of these films reflect a recurring social phenomenon reminiscent of those underpinning nineteenth-century abolitionism and the twentieth-century Civil Rights movement. Thus, this thesis examines the effects of mediatisation on the representation of blackness and identity, as instantiated by the experiences of slavery and mediatised Othering, and the tools used to convey these to a twenty-first-century audience. This thesis demonstrates that, despite increasing historical distance, slave narratives continue to be relevant as a commemoration of the African-American experience and a commentary on slavery and its present-day legacy