1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910557803403321

Autore

DuCille Ann

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Durham : , : Duke University Press, , 2018

ISBN

1-4780-0221-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 340 pages) : illustrations

Collana

A Camera Obscura book

Disciplina

791.4508996073

Soggetti

African Americans on television

Race on television

Racism on television

Television programs - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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."

Sommario/riassunto

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.