Burn Hollywood, Burn! The evolution of race representation in American cinema : Spike Lee’s reinvention of black experience on screen

Abstract

In this Final Year Project I will be exploring the evolution of the representation of African Americans (along with other ethnic minority groups) in American cinema from 1917 to 2000, focusing primarily on Spike Lee‟s influence on filmic race representation in the latter years. Through critical text and film analysis, as well as some brief cultural contextualization, I will chart the progression of representation of black people on screen chronologically in order to ascertain the impact that Spike Lee's films have had on Hollywood cinema in terms of his alternative portrayals of African American life and success as a black director in Hollywood. From The Birth of a Nation (1917) to Beverly Hills Cop (1984) I will explore the stereotypes that classic Hollywood cinema has established and perpetuated for black people and racial minorities on screen, and finally in my case studies of Do The Right Thing (1989) and Bamboozled (2000) I will explain their deconstruction through a renewed cinematic gaze and creative use of satire.