Intersecting Aesthetics

Nine contributors, Cynthia Baron, Elizabeth Binggeli, Kimberly Nichele Brown, Priscilla Layne, Eric Pierson, Charlene Regester, Ellen C. Scott, Tanya L. Shields, and Judith E. Smith, study how cultural and material forces shaped Black film adaptations in the twentieth century. This volume, Intersecting Literary Adaptations and Cinematic Representations of Blackness, presents Black books and films as places where mainstream outlooks and oppositional ones compete. The essays examine how racial attitudes affect adaptation and how expectations about race have guided the decisions of studios and independent filmmakers alike.

Several chapters focus on censorship, both self-imposed and imposed by the industry, and its impact on Black writing and on adaptations of Black stories in early to mid-twentieth-century America. Drawing on archival research, the authors show how commercial barriers pushed Black writers, and studios run by white executives, to disguise Black lives. Other chapters look at Black writers and directors who worked within prevailing customs and practical limits to bring their artistic aims to literature, independent cinema, and studio pictures.

By identifying recurring patterns in Black film adaptations, the collection points to themes, aesthetic approaches, and cultural forces that matter to the wider study of adaptation. Its scope includes travelogues and autobiographies alongside fiction by H. G. de Lisser, Richard Wright, Ann Petry, Frank Yerby, and Walter Mosley.

The films under discussion include the independent productions The Love Wanga (1936), The Devil's Daughter (1939), Melvin Van Peebles's first feature, The Story of a Three Day Pass (1967), and the Senegalese film Karmen Geï (2001). Studio-era titles are In This Our Life (1942), The Foxes of Harrow (1947), Lydia Bailey (1952), The Golden Hawk (1952), and The Saracen Blade (1954). Post-studio films include The Learning Tree (1969), Shaft (1971), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and Devil in a Blue Dress (1995).