Django Unchained and Paula Deen: 21st-Century Representations of Slavery and the Culture of the Plantation

Document Type

Presentation

Presentation Date

4-2014

Abstract or Description

Presentation given at the American Educational Research Association Conference.

The major objective or purpose of this paper is to analyze popular culture representations of the South specifically using film and media personalities to investigate differing images of slavery, the plantation mentality and their pedagogical implications for the formation of the identities of youth in the 21st century. Since the nation has gone South these implications are not limited only to youth in the South but nationally and possibly in some senses globally.
Quentin Tarantino’s film, Django (Weinstein, Weinstein and Tarantino, 2012) and the notions of the plantation culture in the controversy surrounding Paul Deen will be used to demonstrate notions of race explored and pronounced by white media personalities in their statements, in the cultural artifacts they produce and the consequent impact on identity formation.

The theoretical perspectives for this paper are a bricolage derived from critical cultural studies and critical media literacy centered in a Deleuzian based political theory (Deleuze, 1995; Reynolds and Webber, 2004). How do these cultural artifacts and phenomenon evidence both the reproduction of stereotypical Southernness and possible lines of flight that open up complicated conversations about the South as place and race as the crucible (Williamson, 1984) of that understanding?

Given the dramatic impact of racial controversies, particularly in the events and discussions surrounding the Trayvon Martin case in Florida and the increasing Southernization of American culture in the 20th and 21st century(Kincheloe & Pinar, 1991; Reynolds, 2013), it is significant to uncover the influences of media culture on the ways in which identity, more specifically; the identity of youth is formed in the South and the ways in which conceptualizations of the South are developed and deployed.

Conclusions will be presented based upon the critical media analysis of the popular cultural artifacts along with the implications upon identity formation.

Sponsorship/Conference/Institution

American Educational Research Association Conference (AERA)

Location

Philadelphia, PA

Source

https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/aera/aera14/index.php?cmd=Prepare+Online+Program&program_focus=main&PHPSESSID=7h7svurph4j7dphc9ua0oo5ndb

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