American Cinema and the Southern Imaginary

388 Pages·2011·3.049 MB·English

by  Deborah Barker, Kathryn McKee

American Cinema and
the Southern Imaginary
Series Editors
Jon Smith, Simon Fraser University
Riché Richardson, Cornell University
Advisory Board
Houston A. Baker Jr., Vanderbilt University
Jennifer Greeson, The University of Virginia
Trudier Harris, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
John T. Matthews, Boston University
Tara McPherson, The University of Southern California
Scott Romine, The University of North Carolina, Greensboro
American Cinema and
the Southern Imaginary
(cid:2)

edited by
DEBORAH E. BARKER and
KATHRYN MCKEE
The University of Georgia Press Athens and London
© 2011 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www .ugapress .org
All rights reserved
Set in Sabon by Graphic Composition, Inc.,
Bogart, Georgia
Printed digitally in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
American cinema and the southern imaginary / edited by Deborah E. Barker
and Kathryn McKee.
p. cm. — (The new southern studies)
isbn-13: 978-0-8203-3380-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8203-3380-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-8203-3710-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8203-3710-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Southern States—In motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures and history.
3. Race relations in motion pictures. 4. African Americans in motion pictures.
5. Memory in motion pictures. I. Barker, Deborah, 1955– II. McKee,
Kathryn B. III. Series.
pn1995.9.s66a44 2010
791.43'65875—dc22 2010020388
British Library Cataloging-i n-Publication Data available
For Anna, Molly, and Malcolm
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Southern Imaginary 1
Deborah E. Barker and Kathryn McKee
I. Rereading the Hollywood South
The Celluloid War before The Birth: Race and History
in Early American Film 27
Robert Jackson
Mammy’s “Mules” and the Rules of Marriage
in Gone with the Wind 52
Riché Richardson
Bodies and Expectations: Chain Gang Discipline 79
Leigh Anne Duck
The Postwar Cinematic South: Realism and the Politics
of Liberal Consensus 104
Chris Cagle
A “Professional Southerner” in the Hollywood Studio System:
Lamar Trotti at Work, 1925–1 952 122
Matthew H. Bernstein
II. Viewing the Civil Rights South
Black Passing and White Pluralism: Imitation of Life
in the Civil Rights Struggle 151
Ryan DeRosa
Remembering Birmingham Sunday: Spike Lee’s 4 Little Girls 179
Valerie Smith
Exploitation Movies and the Freedom Struggle of the 1960s 194
Sharon Monteith
III. Crossing Borders
Mapping out a Postsouthern Cinema: Three Contemporary Films 219
Jay Watson
The Native Screen: American Indians in Contemporary
Southern Film 253
Melanie R. Benson
The City That Déjà Vu Forgot: Memory, Mapping, and
the Americanization of New Orleans 277
Briallen Hopper
Humid Time: Independent Film, Gay Sexualities,
and Southernscapes 293
R. Bruce Brasell
Papa Legba and the Liminal Spaces of the Blues:
Roots Music in Deep South Film 317
Christopher J. Smith
Revamping the South: Thoughts on Labor, Relationality,
and Southern Representation 336
Tara McPherson
Contributors 353
Index 357
viii Contents
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the contributors who made this collection
possible. We also are indebted to Jay Watson, Annette Trefzer, Jack Pen-
darvis, Theresa Starkey, and Matthew Bernstein for their willingness
to read and comment on the introduction. A special thanks goes to Ivo
Kamps, who has been instrumental throughout the entire project. We are
especially pleased that the collection was included in the New Southern
Studies series and want to thank the series editors, Jon Smith and Riché
Richardson, for their input and faith in the project. At the University of
Georgia Press we thank our editor, Erika Stevens; the design team; our
amazing copyeditor, Susan Silver; and all those who helped us see the
project through from start to fi nish. Thanks also to um graduate stu-
dent Vincent Rotkiewicz for his help in compiling the index. Most im-
portantly, we are grateful to the University of Mississippi students in the
South in Film classes who inspired us to put together this volume.
ix