1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828854103321

Autore

Regester Charlene B. <1956->

Titolo

African American actresses : the struggle for visibility, 1900-1960 / / Charlene Regester

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bloomington, : Indiana University Press, 2010

ISBN

1-282-66329-1

9786612663291

0-253-00431-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (436 p.)

Disciplina

791.4302/8092396073

B

Soggetti

African American women in motion pictures

African American motion picture actors and actresses

Actors - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Madame Sul-Te-Wan : the struggle for visibility -- Nina Mae McKinney : early success and tumultuous career -- Louise Beavers : negotiating racial difference -- Fredi Washington : the masquerades and the masks -- Hattie McDaniel : centering the margin -- Lena Horne : actress and activist -- Hazel Scott : resistance to othering -- Ethel Waters : personification of otherness -- Dorothy Dandridge : intertwining the reel and the real -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Nine actresses, from Madame Sul-Te-Wan in Birth of a Nation (1915) to Ethel Waters in Member of the Wedding (1952), are profiled in African American Actresses. Charlene Regester poses questions about prevailing racial politics, on-screen and off-screen identities, and black stardom and white stardom. She reveals how these women fought for their roles as well as what they compromised (or didn't compromise). Regester repositions these actresses to highlight their contributions to cinema in the first half of the 20th century, taking an informed theoretical, historical, and critical approach.