Django Unchained Stereotypes

This paper will explore in detail, the representation of race in the film Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012). It will identify the way in which African-Americans are represented in the film by analysing if these representations are conservative or instead challenge the stereotyping of this group. To understand these representations, this paper will draw conclusions from the research of Cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, discussing the importance of the representation of African-Americans in relation to cultural practises and texts.
Firstly, representation can be defined as the way in which the media portrays different groups of people or ideas in society to form an overall perspective. Because of this, “representations produce meanings through which we can make sense of out experience and of who we are” (Kathryn Woodward (ed), 1997, Identity & Difference; P14). From representation, stereotypes are often made out of different groups. Stereotyping can be considered as an extreme form of representation. It is the selection & construction of undeveloped, generalised signs which then categorise social groups or individual members of a group. Stereotypes are often but not always negative representations as they tend to be

Early on before the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s, blacks were presented on screen as a stereotype of a servant/slave and were represented as being uneducated. In recent years with the success of actors such as Idris Elba, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman etc., in various roles have proven sometimes that black characters in film and television don’t have to be “stock” types. However, there are many negative representations of black people in recent years such as the archetypical “African-American gangsta” and because of this, these kind of portrayals seem purposely created to spark the fear and hatred of other