John Singletons beskrivning av svart maskulinitet och hur den påverkat black cinema

En studie av Boyz n the Hood utifrån ett maskulinitetsperspektiv

Författare

Kevin Nilsson

Summary, in English

This thesis will explore the theme of masculinity in Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton 1991)
through a film analysis, from the perspective of two theoretical concepts by bell hooks regarding
the studies of masculinity and race. These include Black Looks: Race and Representation and We
Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity.
This essay will also contain a discussion regarding the concept of “Black Cinema” where
I’ll discuss how the african-american cinema was developed in a historic context, from the race
films by Oscar Micheaux to the L.A Rebellion which was a film movement started by film
students from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to Blaxploitation which
portrayed african-americans as heroes but was stereotypical in numerous of ways. The hood film
was inspired by what came before, from the realism of the L.A Rebellion to the aesthetics of
Blaxploitation. To finish off my discussion, I’ll elaborate more on John Singleton and what
makes him an auteur.
This is in order to figure out how masculinity and genus are portrayed in Boyz n the Hood.
Also if there are any recurring themes in John Singleton’s films. I’ll be using the theoretical
concept by Andrew Sarris of the auteur theory. With the auteur theory, I’ll come to a conclusion
of how John Singleton can be seen as an auteur, by looking at his personality which is expressed
in his movies and the themes of Boyz n the Hood and his thematic trilogy which consists of Boyz
n the Hood along with Poetic Justice (John Singleton, 1993) and Baby Boy (John Singleton
2001).

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