From the Hood to the White House: The Cultural Imaginary of Presidential Blackness in Head of State

IF 0.1 4区 社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Atalie Gerhard
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article analyzes the film Head of State’s cultural imaginary of presidential blackness that signifies national progress while sublimating social conflict. The plot imagines a black man from the hood successfully running for presidency, living the American dream, and becoming an unconventional national icon. His symbolic blackness comprises two markers of difference: his identification with the disenfranchised hood and the black diaspora. As he challenges racial inequality in the U.S. as well as moral corruption among the élite, he unifies one historical fiction of America. I focus on how the film attributes an anti-establishment legacy to a minority president based on his countercultural identity performances although he remains complicit with foundational institutions of government. While the film projects hopes for future racial and economic equality upon a fictional black president and strategically redefines the American dream, I argue that it appropriates and revives American exceptionalist myths.
从胡德到白宫:黑人总统在国家元首中的文化想象
本文分析了电影《国家元首》对总统黑人的文化想象,这种想象象征着国家进步,同时升华了社会冲突。故事情节想象一个出身黑人成功竞选总统,实现美国梦,成为一个非传统的国家偶像。他象征性的黑人包括两个不同的标志:他对被剥夺公民权的身份和散居国外的黑人的认同。当他挑战美国的种族不平等以及精英阶层的道德腐败时,他将美国的一部历史小说统一起来。我关注的是,这部电影如何根据一位少数族裔总统的反文化身份表现,将反建制遗产归因于他,尽管他仍然是政府基本机构的同谋。虽然这部电影将未来种族和经济平等的希望投射到一位虚构的黑人总统身上,并从战略上重新定义了美国梦,但我认为它挪用并复活了美国例外主义的神话。
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来源期刊
AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA
AMERICAN STUDIES IN SCANDINAVIA HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-
CiteScore
0.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
8
期刊介绍: American Studies in Scandinavia, the journal of the Nordic Association for American Studies, is published twice each year, and carries scholarly articles and reviews on a wide range of American Studies topics and disciplines, including history, literature, politics, geography, media, language, diplomacy, race, ethnicity, economics, law, culture and society. American Studies in Scandinavia is sponsored by the National Councils for Research in Science and the Humanities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the journal is published by Odense University Press with the financial support of the Nordic Publications Committee for Humanist Periodicals.
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