James Baldwin and cinema: Hollywood’s racial politics in the twentieth-century

Authors

  • Tiago Costa Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.9771/contemporanea.v23i0.66352

Keywords:

James Baldwin, film criticism, 20th century American cinema

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on James Baldwin’s critique of the racial politics of American cinema in the 20th century. To this end, we will look at texts from Baldwin’s essay, in which he analyzes American films from the 1930s-70s, in order to systematize his main hypotheses about Hollywood’s cinematic discourse. Finally, we will present a brief consideration of the relevance of Baldwin’s critical thinking to the current debate on cultural representations in the 21st century audiovisual industry.

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Author Biography

Tiago Costa, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Tiago Leite Costa é graduado em Comunicação Social (UFRJ), mestre em Comunicação Social (PUC-Rio) e Doutor em Literatura, cultura e contemporaneidade (PUC-Rio), com estágio doutoral na Universidad Nacional de Rosario (ARG). Professor colaborador em cursos de especialização na pós-graduação Lato Sensu da PUC-Rio, também é autor de “O perfeito cozinheiro das teorias deste mundo” (Ensaio / Garamond, 2014), “Teoria da Ficção”  (Contos / Litteralux, 2024), além de diversos artigos sobre literatura, arte e comunicação publicados em periódicos acadêmicos.

References

BALDWIN, James. Mass Culture and the Creative Artist: Some Personal Notes. In: Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 2, p. 373-376. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1960. Disponível em: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/20026579>. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

BALDWIN, James. Notas de um filho nativo. Tradução: Paulo Henriques Britto. São Paulo: Cia das Letras, 2020.

__________. Mente vazia, oficina do Diabo: Ensaios sobre a política racial do cinema americano. Tradução: Felipe Vale da Silva. São Paulo: Mµ! edições, Aetia Editorial, 2022. (E-book).

__________. Da próxima vez, o fogo. Tradução: Nina Rizzi. São Paulo: Cia das Letras, 2024.

CRAVEN, Alice Mikal. Visible and Invisible Whiteness: American White Supremacy Through the Cinematic Lens, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Debate: Baldwin x Buckley. Cambridge Union Society (University of Cambridge). out. 1965. Disponível em: https://avplayer.lib.berkeley.edu/Video-Public-MRC/b22146014. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

FRIEDMAN, Ryan Jay. ‘Enough Force to Shatter the Tale to Fragments’: Ethics and Textual Analysis in James Baldwin’s Film Theory. ELH: English Literary History, v. 77, n. 2. p. 385–412. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2010. Disponível em: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40664637?readnow=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

GATES, Jr., Henry Louis. The Fire Last Time: What James Baldwin can and can’t teach America. The New Republic, 1992. Disponível em: https://newrepublic.com/article/114134/fire-last-time. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

KUHN, Anette; WESTWELL, Guy. Dictionary of Film Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

MILLER, D. Quentin. The Devil Finds Work: a Hollywood Love Story (as Written by James Baldwin). In: JACKSON, Robert. (Ed.). Special section on Baldwin and film. James Baldwin Review, v. 7, p. 76–89. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7227/JBR.7.6. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

O’MALLEY, Hayley. Another Cinema: James Baldwin’s Search for a New Film Form. In: JACKSON, Robert. (Ed.). Special section on Baldwin and film. James Baldwin Review, v. 7. p. 90-114. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7227/JBR.7.6. Acesso em: 12 mar. 2025.

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Published

2025-12-15

How to Cite

Costa, T. (2025). James Baldwin and cinema: Hollywood’s racial politics in the twentieth-century . Contemporanea, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.9771/contemporanea.v23i0.66352

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Artigos

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Copyright (c) 2025 Tiago Costa

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