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Lecture 2:Lecture 2:Integrating Race into the Integrating Race into the

Narrative SystemNarrative System

Professor Michael Green

Broken Blossoms (1919)Directed by D.W. Griffith

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Previous LecturePrevious Lecture

• What Kind of Distance Learning Course is this and How can You Succeed in it?

• Why Study Race and Gender in American Film?

• Categorizing the Other • Episode I and The

Birth of a Nation

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This LectureThis Lecture

• The Meaning of Whiteness

• The Voice of Whiteness in Griffith’s Biograph Films

• The Artful racism of Broken Blossoms

• Writing about Film Lesson #1

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The Meaning of WhitenessThe Meaning of Whiteness

Lecture 2: Part I

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)Directed by George Lucas

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What is Whiteness?What is Whiteness?• Whiteness is Not Biology

– Science of Whiteness is Ideological– Ideologies are Historical– Whiteness is a Historical Ideology

• Whiteness is Not an Illusion– Whiteness is an Identity– Whiteness is Social History

• Whiteness is Power & Privilege

• Whiteness is Pain & Pride

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The Discourse of WhitenessThe Discourse of Whiteness“Whiteness gains its power and legitimacy from

the politico-scientific myth that "whites" are innately superior, the ultimate result of divine

intervention, natural selection, or cultural preeminence. Like all myths, white superiority

legitimizes the ideological as biblical or evolutionary: the right of the chosen/ survival of

the fittest. The [myth rests] on the reciprocal ideology that people who do not count as white

are . . . inferior.” – Daniel Bernardi, “The Voice of Whiteness”

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Who Counts as White?Who Counts as White?• This is a historical question.

– The Case of Jewish Americans– The Case of Italian Americans– The Case of Latino/as– How about Arab and Persian Americans?

• It’s also a question of assimilation.– Losing Culture – Participating in White Racism– Acting/Performing as White

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Whiteness and RaceWhiteness and Race“As long as race is something applied to

non-white peoples, as long as white people are not racially seen and named, they/we function as a human norm. Other people

are raced, we are just people.”– Richard Dyer, White

“… most white Americans either do not think of their ‘whiteness’ or think of it as

neutral.”– Hernán Vera and Andrew Gordon, Screen Saviors

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Whiteness is a ChoiceWhiteness is a Choice“There are no whites, only those who

pass for white.” – Daniel Bernardi, Classic Hollywood, Classic

Whiteness

• Counting or not counting as white changes with time and space. At the turn of the century, Jews and Italians didn’t count as white.

• Today, far too many American Jews and Italians believe they are “white.”

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Phenotypes and Signs of RacePhenotypes and Signs of Race

• Phenotypes

– Skin Color

– Hair and Facial Features

• Signs (a little theory)

– Signifier

– Signified

– Arbitrary Relationship (i.e., historical)

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Examples of Phenotypes in FilmExamples of Phenotypes in Film

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White is Defined Against ColorWhite is Defined Against Color“At the interpersonal level, the biological trait or

set of traits thought to reveal ‘race’ are used as assumptions about other physical,

intellectual, emotional, or spiritual traits of a person with those characteristics.

In the U.S., for example, those who are not considered white are often automatically

assumed to be smelly, ‘greasy’, less intelligent, lazy, dirty, not in control of their

emotions, unreliable, and so on.”– Hernán Vera and Andrew Gordon, Screen Saviors

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Summary of PointsSummary of Points• Whiteness is not biology, but rather identity

and social history.

• Whiteness gains its power and legitimacy from the myth that whites are superior.

• Who counts as white is a historical question.

• Whiteness is often seen as an invisible norm.

• Whiteness is a choice.

• Phenotypes are often used as racial signs.

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The Voice of Whiteness in The Voice of Whiteness in D.W. Griffith’s Biograph FilmsD.W. Griffith’s Biograph Films

Lecture 2: Part II

The Birth of a Nation (1915)Directed by D.W. Griffith

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Griffith BioGriffith Bio• David Wark Griffith (1875 – 1948), born in

Kentucky to a former Confederate Colonel.• Began his career as actor and playwright,

sold scenarios to Edwin Porter and then to Biograph, where he became a director.

• He made over 400 films for Biograph, most of them one-reel short films.

• He went on to make feature films, including The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.

• Co-founded United Artists

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Supported by HistorySupported by History• Various factors propagated white

supremacy before and during Griffith’s Biograph tenure.

– Supreme court rulings– American Imperialism and propaganda– Intellectual and academic activity– Rise of the KKK– Anxiety over immigration

“

D.W. Griffith

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More Socio-historical ContextMore Socio-historical Context• The rise of Democrats to Congressional

power in 1910 and the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 brought a return of Southern patriarchal and racist beliefs and practices to political prominence.

• Growing anxiety over the influx of Southern European and Jewish immigrants and the migration of African Americans to Northern cities was used to support separate and unequal practices.

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Early Cinematic RacismEarly Cinematic Racism• Racist representations were common in early cinema, and

not just in Griffith's films.• African Americans, Asian and Latino Americans, and other

non-white groups are systematically vilified and negatively stereotyped while whites are shown as heroic, divine and natural leaders.

• The discourse of whiteness had numerous socio-political, industrial, and individual proponents, beyond Griffith and Biograph.

“

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A Formal InnovatorA Formal Innovator

• Griffith did not invent film techniques such as close-ups and parallel editing, but he was an important innovator of Hollywood style.

• He was a pioneer, helping transform early cinema from a “cinema of attractions” to a system of narration.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)Directed by Edwin Porter

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Ideology in GriffithIdeology in Griffith• Many scholars have explicated the racist

practices in Griffith’s work.

“Among the most repellent elements in his films (and there are such) we see Griffith

as an open apologist for racism, erecting a celluloid monument to the Ku Klux Klan,

and joining their attack on Negroes in The Birth of a Nation."

– Sergei Eisenstein (filmmaker and theorist)

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Racism in the Biograph FilmsRacism in the Biograph Films“Throughout the over 450 Biograph films

directed by or under the direct supervision of Griffith, racism is a consistent and often

explicit formation.”

“Griffith's articulations of style and of race are involved in the same cinematic and discursive processes; pragmatically, they co-constitute

the filmmaker's narrative system.”– Daniel Bernardi, “The Voice of Whiteness”

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Melding Form and ContentMelding Form and Content• Griffith helped develop stylistic practices in

support of storytelling.

• The storytelling often supported racism and white supremacy.

• Therefore, argues Bernardi, development of form – how the story is told – is inseparable from the story itself.

• Griffith’s “articulations of style and race co-constitute the filmmaker's narrative system.”

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Griffith’s Discourse of WhitenessGriffith’s Discourse of Whiteness• Tense, mood and voice work together to

integrate whiteness into Griffith’s Bio. Films.– Tense refers to the temporal relationship

between shots.– Mood refers to "the narration's perspective of

the story told," or what American literary criticism terms point of view.

– Voice is essentially the ideology of the "narrator," an intervening force visible in the juxtaposition of shots, or editing, and through story structure.

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GenresGenres• According to Bernardi, the voice of

whiteness in Griffith's narrative system circulates within three intermixed genres:

– Stories of non-white servitude– Stories of colonial love, or turn-of-the-century

jungle fever– Stories of the divinity of the white family and

serenity of the white woman.

• He also made "Greaser" films, Indian films, Civil War films and Melodramas.

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Stories of Non-White ServitudeStories of Non-White Servitude• Concern a non-white character, usually

male who struggles and sacrifices to better serve the clean and civilized space of white society.

• This character is usually demasculinized to rationalize and justify his service as well as ensure that his motivations are not read as sexually transgressive or miscegenetic.

• That Chink at Golden Gulch (1910).

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Stories of Colonial LoveStories of Colonial Love• Race and sexuality are either segregated or

represented as immoral and prurient in Griffith's narrative discourse.

• Non-white male desire for white females is almost always motivated by an intent to rape.

• White females only desire white males• White male desire for non-white females is

loosely sanctioned in Griffith's narrative system.

• A Romance of the Western Hills (1910)

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Advocating SegregationAdvocating Segregation“In what amounts to colonial love, films from this genre culminate in characterizations and

narrative resolutions that maintain and advocate segregation. While a white male can have his way with an Indian female in

Griffith's films, their union always ends with the Indian back on the reservation. The

narrative in these stories goes out of its way to educate the desiring Other, and the

audience, in keeping the races separate.”– Daniel Bernardi, “The Voice of Whiteness”

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The White Family/White WomanThe White Family/White Woman• These films dramatize the attack on and

defense of the integrity of white woman. • Male control over the family and women –

“the divinity of patriarchy” – is ultimately at stake in many of Griffith's films

• When the family in Griffith's story is coded as white, the threat to its dismemberment comes from a savage and lustful non-white male.

• The Zulu’s Heart and The Girls and Daddy

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The Big PointThe Big Point“Griffith's films employ cinematic technique – from characterization to editing – to tell the story of the inability of non-whites to fully

assimilate into white culture and society, and ultimately provide a justification for their servitude, segregation, and punishment.

Daniel Bernardi, “The Voice of Whiteness”

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The Big Point (Continued)The Big Point (Continued)“Through stories of servitude, colonial love, and the white

family/white women, the filmmaker—his voice—

perpetuated a discourse that cast non-whites as the

metonymic and metaphoric threat to the normality and superiority of whiteness.”

– Daniel Bernardi, “The Voice of Whiteness”

The Birth of a Nation (1915)Directed by D.W. Griffith

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The Artful Racism of The Artful Racism of Broken Broken BlossomsBlossoms

Lecture 2: Part III

Broken Blossoms (1919)Directed by D.W. Griffith

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Familiar Sexual TraitsFamiliar Sexual Traits• According to Julia Lesage, in cinema, male

and female film characters are assigned familiar sexual traits that express the culture’s commonly held sexual fantasies.

• The same kind of sexual political “story,” or assignation of sexual traits, is repeated from film to film, no matter how much the manifest content differs between films.

• This repetition is not ideologically neutral, but serves to reinforce patriarchal social relations in the world outside the film.

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Broken BlossomsBroken Blossoms• Griffith released Broken Blossoms in 1919

as a reaction to his earlier films. He tried to counter the then dominant racist ways of depicting Asians in popular literature, magazines, and film and BB was perceived as a “sensitive and humanitarian” film.

• The film features two male protagonists, a poor Chinese shopkeeper and a working class brute named Battling Burrows, who are at odds over Burrow’s daughter.

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Broken BlossomsBroken Blossoms“Blossoms has a moral message: Asian

Buddhist peacefulness is superior to Anglo-Saxon ignorance, brutality and strife.”

Julia Lesage, “Broken Blossoms: Artful Racism, Artful Rape”

– Lesage

Pause the lecture and watch Clip #1 from the movie.

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The Abuses of MasculinityThe Abuses of Masculinity“The film is about sex roles as much as it is about race. In particular, it is about masculinity. In the figure of Battling Burrows, the film presents the

potential evil of masculinity, here safely attributed to a grotesque Other from the lower classes.”

Julia Lesage, “Broken Blossoms: Artful Racism, Artful Rape”

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Battling BurrowsBattling Burrows

Pause the lecture and watch Clip #2 from Broken Blossoms

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The Sensitive OutsiderThe Sensitive Outsider“Projected onto the Chinese man's

character are all the traits of the 19th cen tury sensitive outsider, the romantic hero--a self-destructive dreamer who never lives out the

fulfillment of his dreams.”Julia Lesage, “Broken Blossoms: Artful Racism,

Artful Rape”

Pause the lecture and watch Clip #3 from the movie.

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Lesage’s ReadingLesage’s Reading• Both men symbolically consummate sexual

contact with Gish.• Their slums, brutality, and opium smoking

cast them as Others. Griffith safely assigns perversity to other races and to the poor.

• Lesage sees the two men as representing men’s options under capitalism.

• Using the Asian man as the romantic hero hides the social reality of racism.

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Her Big PointHer Big Point“On the superficial level, the film is an anti

racist text, but the film says nothing from an Asian person's point of view, just as it says nothing from a woman’s point of view. The images of the East, of Buddhism, of racial

traits, and of an oppressed person's reaction to oppression are all drawn from hegemonic,

white stereotypes.”Julia Lesage, “Broken Blossoms: Artful Racism, Artful Rape”

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Her Big Point (Continued)Her Big Point (Continued)

“In fact, not only is Griffith working only with received opinions and prejudices about

Asians, women, and the working class, but when he sets up his basic opposition of brute vs. sensitive man, he is working with a set of

oppositions that have nothing to do with race.”Julia Lesage, “Broken Blossoms: Artful Racism, Artful Rape”

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Writing About Film Lesson #1Writing About Film Lesson #1

Lecture 2: Part IV

The Birth of a Nation (1915)Directed by D.W. Griffith

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Three Types of Film WritingThree Types of Film Writing

• There are three major types of film writing:

– Descriptive – a neutral account of the basic characteristics of the film.

– Evaluative – which presents a judgment or opinion about a film’s value.

– Interpretive – which presents an argument about a film’s meaning and significance.

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Descriptive WritingDescriptive Writing• As it suggests, descriptive writing describes

a film, without evaluation or judgment.

• Most descriptions of narrative films relay plot events, while a description of a documentary might describe not only the topic of the film, but also the approach.

• While descriptions do not offer judgments, they may go beyond plot summary to describe genre.

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ExampleExample

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Functions of Descriptive Film Functions of Descriptive Film WritingWriting

• Descriptive film writing can be found many places including– Television and movie guides– DVD cases– Programs for film screenings – Books about film

• Its function is to give potential viewers an idea about what a movie is about.

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Why Descriptive Film Writing is Why Descriptive Film Writing is ImportantImportant

• Descriptive film writing is the first essential component in all writing about film. You must be able to describe a film before you can say anything evaluative or interpretive about it.

• Often, descriptive writing is one component of more complex forms of film writing.

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Developing SkillsDeveloping Skills

• Descriptive writing helps you build skills in– Close viewing– Critical Analysis– Synthesizing and synopsizing

• You will use descriptive writing in all your critical papers at the university level.

• Accurate, concise well-articulated description is also crucial to any job, in the film industry or otherwise.

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Choosing DescriptorsChoosing Descriptors

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End of Lecture 2 End of Lecture 2

Next Lecture: Romantic Ethnography