I apologize for the late post. I had some publishing issues with Blogger which prevented me from posting.
Our discussions have focused broadly on the stereotypes used to portray blacks on the American Theater stage. We have learned that while whites mimicking "black life" on stage circulated essentialized representations of black men and women, that blacks also participated in circulating these unfavorbale images. In what ways, if at all, do any of the characters we have encountered in Aikens' Uncle Tom's Cabin, Browns' The Escape and Cook's In Dahomey present new representations of black subjects that disrupt these stereotypes of "Uncle Tom," "Coon," "Topsy, and "Tragic mulatto," etc. that we have seen thus far?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I'm not sure right now if the characters in the aforementioned plays counter the racism towards blacks in plays written by non-blacks. In a discussion group about the movie Crash, one member stated that they did not appreciate the movie because it was as if the screenwriter put all these stereotypes on display just for them to create another stereotype underneath the surface. For example, when the audience first sees the character that ‘Ludacris’ plays he is an advocate on how much whites look at him differently just because of what he wears and his mannerisms. Yet, without fail he and his partner inevitably rob people out of their belongings. Just because we would like the see these two educated black "brothers" doing them in a positive way the truth is that they fall right into the "typical" and expected categories.
I feel that is how these plays are. Regardless of who wrote them black or white the outcome is implicitly the same. The only difference is that now that we have black writers doing it is their work better because the content is better or better because their black which innately makes them better? I think that when an author gets it she/he will get it. No matter what the subject. i feel that Uncle Tom's Cabin and In Dahomey were equally disappointing to me.
In The Escape the character Glen is not exhibited as an ignorant slave compared to the verbalization of other slaves. There’s no doubt with his speech pattern he had some form of education. A lot of slaves at this time were not portrayed in this fashion unless they were the privileged light skin slaves. He spoke with the words of a poet in which he revealed a special quality of language. But then we turn around and see the norm of the “darky” dialect slaves being written in The Escape. The character Cato was a great example of this. His dialogue is listed under the minstrelsy category and his goal was to please his master no matter who he had to sell out. Reading these plays can release the display of many stereotypes. These authors all have a purpose to exhibit numerous positive and negatives that disrupt and showcase these stereotypes.
I feel that many of the stereotypes we have seen thus far in class are presented again and again in the plays we have read. I feel that no matter what the race of the author, they are generally presenting the same generalizations of slaves. However, Brown certainly tries to push the boundaries of the stereotypes largely ingrained by Aiken in Uncle Tom's Cabin. A prime example of this is Cato, who incorporates a multitude of black perspectives in once character. Cato shows how slaves negotiate who they are to themselves, who they are to their masters, and who they are to one another. By exposing different levels of relationships, character's in The Escape are not as one-dimensional or stereotypical as we have previously seen them.
Whereas Uncle Tom's Cabin basically sets up and reinforces the stereotypes of blacks we continue to see played out over and over again onstage and in everyday life itself, The Escape and In Dahomey work in many ways to subvert the negative images of blacks that were in heavy circulation. The Escape works to do this through the device of language. While some of the slave characters such as Cato retained the uneducated, plantation slave dialect that was attributed to blacks at the time, the characters of Melinda and Glen are given speech that is reminiscent of an educated, eloquent European/ Shakespearean dialect. An example of this is the poetical style and tone Glen's words take when he speaks. Equipping these African-American characters with such language works to subvert the image of blacks being uneducated and "lowly" that was so widely circulated and reinforced through the usual "plantation" speech that they were normally given. However, a problem that I do have with The Escape is that only the light-skin mulatto blacks were equipped with educated speech. The darker skin characters continued to speak in the same ignorant, plantation dialect and this is problematic for me because the message that is being sent is only light-skin blacks, or those closer to white, are the ones who posses the ability to be and sound educated, which only further reinforces the coonish, ignorant, darkey stereotype that darker skin blacks were labeled with.
The contrast between the performativity and the slippages of the characters serves as evidence for the disruption of stereotypical blackness. In Brown's Escape, Cato's performativity (as comic darky) is disrupted as his slippages come to the surface. Cato's desire to be more than the simple "darky" disrupts the preexisting notions of the black "coon" character in Uncle Tom. The disruption comes as his performativity is undermined by his ulterior motives. He wants to be free, which contrasts with the behavior patterns that establish him as the "content" slave.
Each of these plays helps perpetuate these unfavorable images, and in some cases strengthen them, all the while acknowledging their existences but giving rise to the real emotions of blacks in the plays in some instances. In *The Escape*, when Cato meets Glen and Melinda and the three rejoice together after escaping, it reaffirms the belief that blacks are stupid; not forgiving—stupid. Cato spends his time out for himself and has virtually no problem with such. I appreciate the playwright giving depth to each of them—as each of them in fact had—so in that instance, the stereotypes are reexamined, but it’s not done often enough to force an end to the stereotypes. I had a lot of trouble, with the supporting characters’ representations in Uncle Tom’s cabin—specifically Topsy. Topsy is one of the most dominating characters that is created by a white audience; Tom is one of the few who is given more complexity. If the playwrights had the intention of subverting stereotypes, they’d infuse those desires into their works and it’d be virtually impossible for the audience to believe that stereotypes are all that prevail.
Post a Comment