Minstrelsy in the American Film Industry Research Paper by TemiA
Minstrelsy in the American Film Industry
An examination of three types of minstrelsy and how they are performed in the American film industry.
# 153886
| 1,569 words
| 0 sources
| 2013
| 
Published
on Jun 09, 2014
in
Ethnic Studies
(Modern)
, Film
(Analysis, Criticism, Etc.)
, African-American Studies
(General)
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From the Paper:
"The minstrel show is considered by many as the first American form of musical theatre (Bordman, 2010). However, the tradition of minstrelsy, in various forms, dates back to well before Thomas Dartmouth Rice first jumped Jim Crow. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, it was common for actors to darken their faces for dramatic effect, as illustrated by Shakespeare's Othello(Strausbaugh, 2010).It could be said that minstrelsy continues to be alive and well today, in the form of reality television and hip-hop culture. While the usage of a burnt cork mask to signify blackness had been centuries old by Jim Crow's first appearance, Rice did revolutionize how it was used to create a new art form.For the purposes of this paper, minstrelsy is defined using Fee's (2003) six core characteristics: authenticity, malapropisms and dialect, physicality, gender representations, playfulness, and anonymity. Authenticity refers to the performer's claim that the characters he or she is presenting is based on actual people. The second characteristic, malapropisms and dialect, refers to the change in dialect and speech patterns to reflect the intended person or people being represented by the character. The use of malapropisms, the mistaken use of similar sounding words, is particular to Blackface minstrelsy."
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APA Format
Minstrelsy in the American Film Industry (2014, June 09)
Retrieved March 20, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/research-paper/minstrelsy-in-the-american-film-industry-153886/
MLA Format
"Minstrelsy in the American Film Industry" 09 June 2014.
Web. 20 March. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/research-paper/minstrelsy-in-the-american-film-industry-153886/>