Race and the Suburbs in American Film

Description

This book is the first anthology to explore the connection between race and the suburbs in American cinema from the end of World War II to the present. It builds upon the explosion of interest in the suburbs in film, television, and fiction in the last fifteen years, concentrating exclusively on the relationship of race to the built environment. Suburb films began as a cycle in response to both America's changing urban geography and the re-segregation of its domestic spaces in the postwar era, which excluded African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx from the suburbs while buttressing whiteness. By defying traditional categories and chronologies in cinema studies, the contributors explore the myriad ways suburban spaces and racialized bodies in film mediate each other. Race and the Suburbs in American Film is a stimulating resource for considering the manner in which race is foundational to architecture and urban geography, which is reflected, promoted, and challenged in cinematic representations. Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Suburb Films—From Cycle to Genre The Racialized Spatial Turn: Suburban Typologies, Suburban Neighborhoods History of the Racialized Suburbs: American Dreams/American Nightmares Racialized Production and Distribution of Suburb Films Race and Bodies in Space Contributions Notes References 1 Passing Through: The Black Maid in the Cinematic Suburbs, 1948–1949 Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House The Reckless Moment Notes References 2 Take a Giant Step: Racialized Spatial Ruptures in the Northern Cinematic Suburbs Black in the White Cinematic Spatial Imaginary White Nooses around the Black Necks of the Cities Class, Race, and Placelessness Conclusion Notes References 3 “Where Have You Been?”: Bill Gunn’s Suburban Nightmares Bill Gunn’s Working-Class Suburb Place Out of Time: Afro (Near) Futurism and Suburban Portals Still Life: Whites Aghast Victim or Criminal? Scenes of Subjection and the Black Suburban Nude Fields of Transformation: Wading through the High Grass The Suburban Talking Cure Conclusion Notes References 4 The House They Live In: Charles Burnett, Indie Hollywood, and the Politics of Black Suburbia Visions of Indie Hollywood LA’s Southern Folkways Haunted House Family Values and a New Black Cinema Notes References 5 “Guess Who Doesn’t Belong Here?”: The Interracial Couple in Suburban Cinema “This Is My House, My Rules” “It’s Not That He’s White” “It Doesn’t Matter What I Say, You People Are Gonna Think I’m Racist” Knock, Knock. Who’s There? The Other. Notes References 6 Alienated Subjects: Suburban Failure and Aspiration in Asian American Film Suburban Pathology Agency as Failed Enterprise Conclusion Notes References 7 Inhabiting the Suburban Film: Arab American Narratives of Spatial Insecurity Assimilation and Racialization in Post-9/11 America Suburban Isolation Teenage Alienation and Rebellion Conclusion Notes References 8 Living in Liberty City: Triangulating Space and Identity in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (2016) Space, Race, and History Space, Race, and Identity Space, Race, and Aesthetics Notes References 9 Geographies of Racism: American Suburbs as Palimpsest Spaces in Get Out (2017) The Suburb’s Hidden Racial Legacies of Exclusion, Violence, and Control Racial Geographies of Institutional Segregation The Sunken Place, Racial Amnesia, and the Importance of Collective Memory Conclusion Notes References 10 The Limits and Possibilities of Suburban Iconoclasm: Suburbicon and 99 Homes Notes References 11 “A Perfectly Normal Life?”: Suburban Space, Automobility, and Ideological Whiteness in Love, Simon Unpacking Suburban Spatiality and Whiteness in Love, Simon The Critical Limits and Potentialities of Automobility in Love, Simon An Unsustainable Fantasy Notes References Contributors Index