In the Following essay I will explore and develop an analysis of how the movie Twelve Years A Slave produces knowledge about the racial discourse. To support my points, I will use “The Poetics and the Politics of Exhibiting Other Cultures” written by Henrietta Lidchi, a Princeton University text “Introduction: Development and the Anthropology of Modernity” and “Can the Subaltern Speak?” by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Ethnography is the scientific explanation of people and their cultures with their customs, habits, practices and differences. It is important to understand what ethnography is in order to be able to analyse how different objects are displayed and represented at a specific time in history, and how these specific ways of representations change the way we understand and view the objects and the community itself. We have visited the Museo Nacional De A museum gives us insight on the culture from an out standing point of view, and the things we are shown are supposed to be looked at from the outside. The people who decided what things to exhibit did not belong to that community saw it, and decided what they considered is different to what we are used to, and what we would be interested in learning from that. The display of things in a Museum are things that we look at as something that is outside from normal. In contrast to the movie or movies, where scenes substantially show how the person felt and dealt with situations and tools from their own perspective, with their own knowledge and experience and through different means such as real images, sounds, language and others produces a different knowledge on the racial discourse. When looking at exhibitions in museums the other culture is unknown, and almost uncomfortable to us, but in movies we can be standing in their
Of the given options of films to watch for the extra credit assignment, I chose to watch HBO’s documentary titled the Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives, a production I thought was excellently put together. I was initially apprehensive of the film, thinking it would be extremely boring, but I rather found it to be quite the accessible medium of history both available and appealing to a broad audience including myself. I found the readings of the many slave’s interviews and firsthand accounts to be such a clever way to understand more about the culture of slavery in an uncanted light and it broadened my knowledge of what slavery entailed. The credibility of this film finds its foundations cemented in the undeniable and indisputable
In “Sacrality and Aura in the Museum: Mute Objects and Articulate Space,” Joan R. Branham argues about the experiences art viewers have in museums based on their surroundings. Her points include how a person is to completely understand and feel a ritual object if it is taken out of its natural context or how someone is able to fully appreciate of work of art if they can’t see it where it truly belongs.
The criteria of this essay are just used to inform the readers about what black people had to endure during slavery. Also, showed how whites treated black people. The movie also showed how black people had to deal with how white people treated them.
The movie 12 Years a Slave, is an exceptional film. It shows how brutal and inhumane American Slavery is. The movie itself is shockingly truthful as to the events that actually happened. There were many scenes that made it hard to not look away from the screen. Along with numerous scenes of trying to hold back tears. This movie is filled with heartache, sorrow, pure utter violence, but also love. There were many amazing actors and actress’ in this movie. Altogether, this film was brilliant. In fact, it has won many awards. Including, an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, and many more outstanding awards. This movie is brutally honest, but well deserved. A free-man was
The Birth of a Nation (1915) is one of the most controversial movies ever made in Hollywood, some people even consider it the most controversial movie in the long history of Hollywood. Birth of a Nation focuses on the Stoneman family and their friendship with the Cameron’s which is put into question due to the Civil War, and both families being on different sides. The whole dysfunction between the families is carried out through important political events such as: Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Kan. D.W. Griffith is the director of the movie, and him being born into a confederate family in the South, the movie portrays the South as noble and righteous men, who are fighting against the evil Yankees from the North, who have black union soldiers among them, whom overtake the town of Piedmont, which leads the KKK to take action and according to the movie become the savior of white supremacy. During this essay, I would focus on the themes of racial inequality, racism, and the archetypical portrayal of black people in the movie, which are significant especially during the era when the film was released.
Over historical progression, African Americans have faced a surfeit of injustices that are addressed throughout numerous works of literature. One of the most frequently discussed themes in African American literature related to these injustices is social issues in an interracial community. With various literary techniques, the central topic of social issues due to race portrayed. Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s A Red Record and Alain Locke’s The New Negro address the social issues of racial brutality, inferiority and social controversy in an interracial society.
“Duncan’s (1991) article provides an examination of western museums as a vehicle for the “modern state” to project imperialistic values over art objects of the Third World. The American/European art museum is a type of “temple” that is used to ritualize western art objects as a projection of modernity over the “primitive” art of Third World cultures.”
Lawrence, L. (2007). Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom. London: Sage Publishers.
The film”Sankofa” and the Negro by Du Bois reflects on the ideas about the desires of African intellectuals during the 1920s and the identity crisis to the black Americans. The American society refused to offer African Americans equal rights as their white counterparts. The two sources engage the reader to ask a question as to why an individual self-esteem is affected by race. This is a troublesome issue for the blacks considering the fact that Europeans viewed them as people without practical history and have nothing to offer. The film highlights some of the primitive and exotic factors of the American society during slavery era. The Atlantic slave trade is the main feature that depicts the lives of Africans in the hands of the Europeans.
Twelve Years a slave tells the story a free African America man who was kidnaped and sold as a slave. Throughout the twelve years that Solomon we got a first look of what being a slave might have looked like and the horrors that came with that station in society. Through the film there is a structure of a hierarchy and the white man is the leader and the rest are left to his mercy. The film shows there are consequence that there are for being an African and being a woman, especially a woman that was a slave. This essay will show the hierarchy in the slavery system by analyzing the film in a deeper level.
Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve years a slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Print.
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves
Museum defines as an institution housing collections of objects of artistic, historic, or scientific interest conserved and displayed for the educational and enjoyment of the public. Museums are places of memory that provides the link of distant past to the present generation which also help the society to know the path their forebears trod. The main purpose of museum is neither to educate nor entertain but rather creates a memory bank would remind us of the past. No wonder most societies in different parts of the world traced their origin through the works of arts history. There are many types of museum includes museum of Antiquities-in which are housed ancient pieces of furniture or objects of art such as sculptures, paintings, ceramics, textiles and other crafts. Public record office museum serving as collection centre for famous documents, War museum containing relics of national wars, Maritime museum for maritime history, museum for architecture, with types, structures and styles of building, etc., Museum for Local/Indigenous Technologies, Science Museum, with objects depicting history of science and engineering and Natural History Museum. However, all types of these have their own roles of information institutions in national development. The main roles are to identify, acquire, preserve, and exhibit unique, collectible, or representative objects. The role of museum in the life of a nation involves conducting research into the vast natural history heritage and biodiversity of the country, serving as a repository, of natural objects, source materials and taxonomists in that country, creating scientific awareness, on natural history resources of the nation through annotated exhibitions for public enlightenment in display ga...
The inside of the museum was intense because you walk into see two huge dinosaur structures in the front. There were also many entrances to different exhibits on top the entrances were enormous murals depicting various things. The murals showed all of the cultures around the world. All of the cultures are able to mix in with each other. For instance, the mural on top of the Asian Peoples exhibit was showing the many different Asian cultures such as Japanese, Korean, and Chinese mixing into one huge mural. There was the mural on top of the African Peoples exhibit that included prominent animals such as, lions and elephants. And lastly for the South American Peoples exhibit that included Theodore Roosevelt in the mural signifying the creation of the Panama Canal. I like how the murals all had the same color schemes. These murals showed the impact of various historical events having an im...
12 Million Black Voices by Richard Wright is a photo and text book which poetically tells the tale of African Americans from the time they were taken from Africa to the time things started to improve for them in a 149 page reflection. Using interchanging series of texts and photographs, Richard Wright encompasses the voices of 12 Million African-Americans, and tells of their sufferings, their fears, the phases through which they have gone and their hopes. In this book, most of the photos used were from the FSA: Farm Security Administration and a few others not from them. They were selected to complement and show the points of the text. The African-Americans in the photos were depicted with dignity. In their eyes, even though clearly victims, exists strengths and hopes for the future. The photos indicated that they could and did create their own culture both in the past and present. From the same photos plus the texts, it could be gathered that they have done things to improve their lives of their own despite the many odds against them. The photographs showed their lives, their suffering, and their journey for better lives, their happy moments, and the places that were of importance to them. Despite the importance of the photographs they were not as effective as the text in showing the African-American lives and how the things happening in them had affected them, more specifically their complex feelings. 12 Million Black Voices by Richard Wright represents the voice of African-Americans from their point of view of their long journey from Africa to America, and from there through their search for equality, the scars and prints of where they come from, their children born during these struggles, their journeys, their loss, and plight...