[Charlene B. Regester]African American Actresses : The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960(pdf){Zzzzz}

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.

Product Description
Review
"Locating the actresses' lives and careers in the nexus of sexuality, demeaning roles, rampant discrimination, segregation, stereotyping, the white male gaze, and white appropriation of black actresses' identities, Regester intricately outlines a discourse of black stardom. [...]A major tribute to nine talented black actresses and their complicated negotiations with white mainstream entertainment industry before Civil Rights, African American Actresses is an invaluable asset for students of ethnicity and race in Hollywood. Not only does Regester bring the early twentieth century American racial scene alive by detailing the politics that informed choices and roles of African American women actors, she also contributes richly to studies of stardom as refracted by the socio-cultural and political status of black people and women in America." - Scope, February 2014

About the Author
Charlene Regester is Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is co-editor of the Oscar Micheaux Society Newsletter and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Film and Video.

Publisher: Indiana University Press (14 June 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0253221927
ISBN-13: 978-0253221926