Black on white: Film noir and the epistemology of race in recent African American cinema

Journal of Social Philosophy

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 82-116

  Flory, Dan ^a  

^a MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 80054495024     PISSN: 00472786     EISSN: 14679833     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/0047-2786.00033     Document Type: Article

References (201)

1. After Dark, My Sweet (Avenue Pictures, James Foley, 1990);
2. and LA Confidential (Regency/Warner Brothers, Curtis Hanson, 1997).
3. See also the filmography for "neo-noir" in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (Woodstock, N. Y.: Overlook Press, 1992), 3rd ed., Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward (eds.), Carl Macek, Robert Porfirio, and James Ursini (coeditors), 423-440.
4. J. P. Telotte, Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989);
5. and James Naremore, More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).
6. See also (among others) Mike Davis, "Sunshine or Noir?" in City of Quartz [1990] (New York: Vintage, 1992), 17-97;
7. Frank Krutnik, In a Lonely Street (London: Routledge, 1991);
8. Colin McArthur, The Big Heat (London: BFI Publishing, 1992);
9. Slavoj Zizek, Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out (New York: Routledge, 1992), 149-165;
10. Brian Neve, Film and Politics in America: A Social Tradition (London: Routledge, 1992), 145-170;
11. The Book of Film Noir [1992] (New York: Continuum, 1993), Ian Cameron (ed.);
12. Shades of Noir (London: Verso, 1993), Joan Copjec (ed.);
13. Slavoj Zizek, Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), 9ff.;
14. Dana Polan, In a Lonely Place (London: BFI Publishing, 1993);
15. Robin Buss, French Film Noir (London: Marion Boyars, 1994);
16. R. Barton Palmer, Hollywood's Dark Cinema: The American Film Noir (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994);
17. and Women in Film Noir (London: BFI Publishing, 1998), new ed., E. Ann Kaplan (ed.).
18. see Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage, 1979), trans. Alan Sheridan, 26ff.
19. Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), 18
20. and "Non-Cartesian Sums: Philosophy and the African-American Experience", Teaching Philosophy 17(1994), 227.
21. See, e.g., Mills, The Racial Contract, 131-132
22. "Non-Cartesian Sums", 225;
23. and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 49.
24. (Phrase quoted from Mills's "Non-Cartesian Sums", 225.)
25. Double Indemnity (Paramount, Billy Wilder, 1944);
26. Phantom Lady (Universal, Robert Siodmak, 1944);
27. Detour (PRC, Edgar Ulmer, 1945);
28. The Killers (Mark Hellinger Productions, Robert Siodmak, 1946);
29. The Dark Corner (Twentieth Century Fox, Henry Hathaway, 1946);
30. The Big Clock (Paramount, John Farrow, 1947);
31. Out of the Past (RKO, Jacques Tourneur, 1947);
32. and The Asphalt Jungle (MGM, John Huston, 1950).
33. Paul Schrader, "Notes on Film Noir", Film Comment 8:1(1972), 8-13
34. and J. A. Place and L. S. Peterson, "Some Visual Motifs of Film Noir", Film Comment 10:1(1974), 30-35.
35. Film Noir Reader (New York: Limelight Editions, 1996), Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds.).
36. see Naremore, More Than Night, 9-39;
37. Davis, City of Quartz, 17-54;
38. Krutnik, In a Lonely Street, 16-17;
39. Telotte, Voices in the Dark, 9-36;
40. Marc Vernet, "Film Noir on the Edge of Doom", in Shades of Noir, Copjec (ed.), 1-31;
41. Palmer, Hollywood's Dark Cinema, 7-31;
42. and David Bordwell, "The Case of Film Noir", in Bordwell, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), 74-77.
43. and Jonathan Munby, Public Enemies, Public Heroes: Screening the Gangster from "Little Caesar" to "Touch of Evil" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), esp. 142-143.
44. Todd Erickson's "Kill Me Again: Movement Becomes Genre" (in Film Noir Reader, Silver and Ursini (eds.), 307-329)
45. Dennis Hopper's The Hot Spot (Orion, 1990)
46. Laura (Twentieth Century Fox, Otto Preminger, 1944);
47. The Big Sleep (Warner Brothers, Howard Hawks, 1946);
48. The Postman Always Rings Twice (MGM, Tay Garrnett, 1946);
49. Key Largo (Warner Brothers, John Huston, 1948);
50. T-Men (Eagle-Lion, Anthony Mann, 1948);
51. and Touch of Evil (Albert Zugsmith/Universal International, Orson Welles, 1958).
52. see Michel Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982), trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith, esp. 31-39.
53. Vernet, "Film Noir on the Edge of Doom";
54. and Jonathan Munby, Public Enemies, Public Heroes, 115-220.
55. See Copjec (ed.), "Introduction", Shades of Noir, xi.
56. (See also Bordwell, "The Case of Film Noir", 75;
57. and Etienne Borgers, "Serie Noir", in The Big Book of Noir (New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, 1998), Lee Server, Ed Gorman, and Martin H. Greenberg (eds.), 237-244.
58. See The Film Encyclopedia (New York: Harper Collins, 1994), 2nd ed., Ephraim Katz (ed.), 452.
59. Charles O'Brien, "Film Noir in France: Before the Liberation", Iris 21(1996), 7-20;
60. Janice Morgan, "Scarlet Streets: Noir Realism from Berlin to Paris to Hollywood", Iris 21(1996), 31-53;
61. Ginette Vincendeau, "Noir is Also a French Word: The French Antecedents of Film Noir", in The Book of Film Noir, Cameron (ed.), 49-58;
62. and Buss, French Film Noir, 7ff.
63. The Maltese Falcon (Warner Brothers, John Huston, 1941);
64. Murder, My Sweet (RKO, Edward Dmytryk, 1944);
65. and The Woman in the Window (RKO/International, Fritz Lang, 1945).
66. Little Caesar (Warner Brothers, Mervyn LeRoy, 1930);
67. Public Enemy (Warner Brothers, William Wellman, 1931);
68. and Scarface (Howard Hughes Productions, Howard Hawks, 1932).
69. and Munby, Public Enemies, Public Heroes, 115-220
70. and "The 'Un-American' Film Art: Robert Siodmak and the Political Significance of Film Noir's German Connection", Iris 21(1996), 76.
71. and "Appendix A1", in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference, Silver and Ward (eds.), 323-325.
72. See Garth Jowett, "Beer, Bullets, and the Hays Office: Public Enemy (1931)", in American History, American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image (New York: Ungar, 1980), John E. O'Connor and Martin A. Jackson (eds.), 60;
73. Robert Sklar, City Boys (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), 7-9;
74. John Izod, Hollywood and the Box Office (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 86;
75. and Munby, "The 'Un-American' Film Art", 76-77.
76. Sklar, City Boys, 11-17;
77. and Izod, Hollywood and the Box Office, 105.
78. See Munby, "Manhattan Melodrama's 'Art of the Weak': Telling History from the Other Side in the 1930s Talking Gangster Film", Journal of American Studies 30(1996), 101-118
79. and Public Enemies, Public Heroes, 19-82;
80. and "Manhattan Melodrama's 'Art of the Weak, '" 101-108.
81. and "Manhattan Melodrama's 'Art of the Weak, '" 104, 114-115.
82. and "The 'Un-American' Film Art", 76;
83. See Munby, "Manhattan Melodrama's 'Art of the Weak, '" 103
84. [see Joseph McBride, Hawks on Hawks (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982), 44].
85. Roaring Twenties (Warner Brothers, Raoul Walsh, 1939)
86. Dead End (MGM, William Wyler, 1937)
87. A Slight Case of Murder (Warner Brothers, Lloyd Bacon, 1938).
88. (The most salient examples are Warner Brothers' G-Men (1935)
89. and Bullets or Ballots (1936)
90. White Heat (Warner Brothers, Raoul Walsh, 1949).
91. and Neve, Film and Politics in America, 147-170.
92. A Double Life (Kanin Productions, George Cukor, 1948)
93. The Dark Mirror (Inter-John, Inc., Robert Siodmak, 1946)
94. Hollow Triumph (Hollow Triumph, Inc., Steve Sekeley, 1948)
95. The Reckless Moment (Wayne Wanger Productions, Max Ophuls, 1949);
96. Possessed (Warner Brothers, Curtis Burnhardt, 1947);
97. The Lady from Shanghai (Columbia, Orson Welles, 1948).
98. Dead Reckoning (Columbia, John Cromwell, 1947);
99. Undercurrent (MGM, Vincente Minnelli, 1946);
100. and Sudden Fear (Joseph Kaufmann Productions, David Miller, 1952).
101. Shadow of a Doubt (Universal, Alfred Hitchcock, 1944);
102. Uncle Harry (Universal, Robert Siodmak, 1945);
103. Mildred Pierce (Warner Brothers, Michael Curtiz, 1945);
104. Secret Beyond the Door (Universal-Diana, Fritz Lang, 1948);
105. Caught (Enterprise, Max Ophuls, 1949);
106. Chinatown (Robert Evans, Roman Polanski, 1974);
107. Scandal Sheet (Columbia, Phil Karlson, 1952);
108. Where the Sidewalk Ends (Twentieth Century Fox, Otto Preminger, 1950);
109. Criss Cross (Universal International, Robert Siodmak, 1949);
110. Love Crimes (Millimeter/Sovereign, Lizzie Borden, 1992);
111. The Last Seduction (ITC, John Dahl, 1994);
112. Bound (Spelling Productions, Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1996);
113. Sorry, Wrong Number (Paramount, Anatole Litvak, 1948);
114. Somewhere in the Night (Twentieth Century Fox, Joseph L. Mankewicz, 1946);
115. The Big Heat (Columbia, Fritz Lang, 1953);
116. Kiss Me Deadly (United Artists, Robert Aldrich, 1955);
117. Black Angel (Universal, Roy Neill, 1946);
118. and Lost Highway (Lost Highway/CiBy 2000/Asymmetrical Production, David Lynch, 1996).
119. Force of Evil (Roberts Productions, Abraham Polonsky, 1948);
120. Crossfire (RKO, Edward Dmytryk, 1947);
121. In a Lonely Place (Santana Productions, Nicholas Ray, 1950);
122. and The Stranger (Independent Releasing Corporation, Orson Welles, 1946).
123. In I Married A Communist for the FBI (aka The Woman On Pier 13) (RKO, Robert Stevenson, 1949)
124. Between Midnight and Dawn (Columbia, Gordon Douglas, 1950)
125. [see, for example, Jon Tuska, Dark Cinema: American Film Noir in Cultural Perspective (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984), 192]
126. Final Analysis (Warner Brothers, Phil Joanou, 1992);
127. and Dead Again (Paramount/Mirage, Kenneth Branagh, 1991).
128. Richard Maltby, "The Politics of the Maladjusted Text", in The Book of Film Noir, Cameron (ed.), 39-48;
129. B. Ruby Rich, "Dumb Lugs and Femmes Fatales", Sight and Sound 5:11 (November 1995), 6-10;
130. Ed Guerrero, Review of Devil in a Blue Dress, Cineaste 22:1(1996), 38, 40-41;
131. Diawara's "Noir by Noirs: Towards a New Realism in Black Cinema", African-American Review 27(1993), 525-537;
132. Richard Martin, Mean Streets and Raging Bulls: The Legacy of Film Noir in Contemporary American Cinema (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999), 137-143;
133. and Jans B. Wager, Dangerous Dames: Women and Representation in the Weimar Street Film and Film Noir (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1999), 124-127.
134. Manthia Diawara, "Noir by Noirs: Toward a New Realism in Black Cinema", in Shades of Noir, Copjec (ed.), 262;
135. See also Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton, "Towards a Definition of Film Noir" (trans. Alain Silver), in Film Noir Reader, Silver and Ursini (eds.), esp. 19-25.
136. See W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Signet, 1969), 45ff.
137. Lewis R. Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1995), 184.
138. See also Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, 182-184.
139. [see "Statistical Stigmata", in Deconstruction and the Possibility of Justice (New York: Routledge, 1992), Drucilla Cornell, Michel Rosenfeld, and David Carlson (eds.), 333].
140. Immanuel Kant's "On National Characteristics", in Race and the Enlightenment (London: Blackwell, 1997), Emmanuel C. Eze (ed.).
141. in Race and the Enlightenment, 38-64
142. see Alton Fitzgerald White, "Ragtime, My Time, "
143. and David Cole, "The Color of Justice", Nation 269:11 (October 11, 1999), 11-12 and 12-15
144. and David Theo Goldberg, Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 204-205.
145. Lewis R. Gordon, Fanon and the Crisis of European Man: An Essay on Philosophy and the Human Sciences (New York: Routledge, 1995), 41.
146. Guerrero, Review of Devil In A Blue Dress, 40.
147. Scarlet Street (Diana/Universal, 1945)
148. Clash By Night (RKO, 1952)
149. and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (RKO, 1956)
150. Goldberg, Racist Culture, 185, 28.
151. Leonard Quart, Review of Clockers, Cineaste 21:4(1995), 64.
152. See Leonard Quart, "Spike Lee's Clockers: A Lament for the Urban Ghetto", Cineaste 22:1(1996), 10.
153. "A Novelist and Screenwriter Eyeballs the Inner City: An Interview with Richard Price", by Leonard Quart and Albert Auster, Cineaste 22:1(1996), 17.
154. "Quart, Spike Lee's Clockers: A Lament for the Urban Ghetto", 9.
155. see Clockers (New York: Avon Books, 1993), 45.]
156. "A Novelist and Screenwriter Eyeballs the Inner City: An Interview with Richard Price", by Quart and Auster, 17.
157. see, e.g., Harlem Rides the Range (Hollywood Productions, Richard C. Kahn, 1939)
158. "Spike Lee's Clockers: A Lament for the Urban Ghetto", 9-11.
159. Gordon, Fanon and the Crisis of European Man, 62-63.
160. New Jack City (Warner Brothers, Mario van Peebles, 1991);
161. A Rage in Harlem (Miramax, Bill Duke, 1992);
162. Juice (Paramount/Island, Ernest Dickerson, 1992);
163. and Chameleon Street (Prismatic One, Wendell Harris, 1989).
164. Menace II Society (New Line, 1993)
165. Dead Presidents (Underworld Entertainment, 1995), Albert and Allan Hughes;
166. Hoodlum (United Artists, Bill Duke, 1997);
167. and Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (Palomar Pictures, Michael Apted, 1998)
168. and James, American Civilization (London: Blackwell, 1993), esp. 118-132.
169. See also Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go [1945] (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990)
170. Lonely Crusade [1947] (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1986)
171. aka For Love of Imabelle] (New York: Signet, 1974);
172. Donald Goines, Dopefiend (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1971)
173. Black Girl Lost (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1973)
174. Daddy Cool (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1974)
175. White Man's Justice, Black Man's Grief (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1973);
176. Robert Beck, Trick Baby (Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1967);
177. and Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (New York: Pocket Books, 1991)
178. and A Little Yellow Dog (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996).
179. see his "The Black Gangster Film", Journal of Social Philosophy 24(1993), 143-154, esp. 152.
180. Eric Lott, "The Whiteness of Film Noir", American Literary History 9(1997), 542-566;
181. Wanda Coleman, "Guys, Dolls and Bit Players", in her Native in a Strange Land: Trials and Tremors (Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1996), 159-161;
182. and Julian Murphet's "Film Noir and the Racial Unconscious", Screen 39(1998), 22-35.
183. See, for example, John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), esp. 201ff.
184. Sir Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty (London: Oxford University Press, 1969).
185. Kwami Anthony Appiah, "Racisms", in Anatomy of Racism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990), David Theo Goldberg (ed.), 4, 15.
186. [See also Appiah's In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 13-20.]
187. See Adrian M. S. Piper, "Higher-Order Discrimination", in Identity, Character, and Morality: Essays in Moral Development (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), Owen Flanagan and Amelie Oksenberg Rorty (eds.), 285-309, esp. 305.
188. Goldberg, Racist Culture, 144.
189. [See also Goldberg's "Racism and Rationality: the Need for a New Critique", Philosophy of the Social Sciences 20(1990), 317-350.]
190. see also Fanon and the Crisis of European Man, 42-66.
191. Mills, "Under Class Under Standings", Ethics 104(1994), 857.
192. See also The Racial Contract, esp. 1-7, 77-79, 107-109, 118-133.
193. The Philosophical Forum 24:1-3 (1992-93);
194. Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 1996), Lewis R. Gordon (ed.);
195. Lucius Outlaw, On Race and Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 1996);
196. Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997), Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (ed.);
197. David Theo Goldberg, Racial Subjects: Writing on Race in America (New York: Routledge, 1997);
198. Race/Sex: Their Sameness, Difference, and Interplay (New York: Routledge, 1997), Naomi Zack (ed.);
199. Charles W. Mills, Blackness Visible (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998);
200. Howard McGary, Racism and Social Justice (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998);
201. and Tommy L. Lott, The Invention of Race (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999).