A Rhetoric of Symbolic Identity: Analysis of Spike Lee's X and Bamboozled

by Gerald A. Powell Jr.

Overview

This study explores African-American identity through film, drawing from Spike Lee's cinematic production of X (1992) and Bamboozled (2000). The study brings attention to how African-American identity is negotiated in communicative interactions. In doing so, the study proposes an alternative rhetorical and cultural approach to the nuances of African-American identity.

Using contemporary theories from Ronald Jackson, Mark McPhail, Cornel West, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Eric Watts, the researcher explores the dynamics of human interaction: the manifestations of power, perception, essentialist thinking, and how these in turn penetrate through language in our understanding of others. This study makes critical arguments concerning the strategic positioning of language for purposes of understanding culture and difference. More importantly, it rearticulates black identity, making an argument for its complexities, which are other than historical and factual. It argues that black identity needs to be examined in terms of a more critical and culturally appropriate rhetoric.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761828679
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	05/19/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	114
Product dimensions:	6.72(w) x 8.48(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

Gerald A. Powell, Jr. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre at St. Josephs College, Indiana. He holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Intercultural Communication from Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction: Statement of Research Problems; Research Questions; Justification for the Study; Justifications for the Films; Aims of the Study; Outline of the Chapters Chapter 4 Theoretical Framework and Methodology: Complicity of Negative Difference; Cultural Contract Theory of Negotiation; Alienation; Double Consciousness; Hermeneutical Ethos; Justification for Multiple Theories; Methodology Chapter 5 Literature Review: Literature Review of Black Cinema; Rhetorical Texts Pertaining to the Content of Films: X; Bamboozled; Literature Review of Identity Chapter 6 Analysis: Complicity of Negative Difference (Bamboozled): Africa; Cultural Psychological Haven; Socioeconomic Conditions; Complicity of Negative Difference (X): Africa; Cultural Psychological Haven; Socioeconomic Conditions; Contract The Chapter 7 Analysis Questions: Double-Consciousness; Hermeneutical Ethos; Alienation Chapter 8 Overview: Formation of Cultural Contracts; Characters and the Contracts; Breaching of Cultural Contracts; Implications for the Future; Researcher's Contribution Chapter 9 Glossary Chapter 10 References Chapter 11 About the Author