In this book, Delphine Letort examines the plots and ploys that intermingle fiction and history in Barry Jenkins' television adaptation of The Underground Railroad, allowing viewers to experience enslavement and flight through the eyes of the female protagonist, Cora. Letort demonstrates how the fusion of imaginary and real elements underlies a poetic visual and narrative style to guide viewers' emotional and epistemological understanding of the past. She posits that another imagery of enslavement can be created-one that does not position the black woman at the margins of slavery cinema and history-as the mise-en-scene of the underground as a symbolic space representing the hidden and the repressed opens new fictional possibilities for imagining the intimate life of the enslaved. Ultimately, this book reveals how the serial format proves instrumental in transforming the gaze on the racial subject, using repetition and difference from one episode to the next to prompt new ways of seeing. Scholars of film and television studies, popular culture, history, and critical race theory will find this book of particular interest.
Delphine Letort is professor of film and American studies at the University of Le Mans.
List of Figures Foreword: Michael T. Martin Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Serializing the Memories of the Underground Railroad Chapter 2: The Underground: From History to Imagination Chapter 3: Deconstructing the Slavery Film Chapter 4: Incidents in the Life of Cora Chapter 5: A History of Race and Violence Conclusion Bibliography About the Author
"Delphine Letort's Barry Jenkins and the Legacies of Slavery- The TV Series Adaptation of The Underground Railroad deploys a remarkably rich analysis which describes how American film and television obscurespast and present reality racism and sexism that the entertainment industry obscure by funding pollyannaishstories that avoid the dehumanizing fact of structural racism and male-centric narratives. Letort grasps thecorrelating aspects of visual, gender, and racial subjectivity and their systemic social history. Her bookprovides a meticulous analysis of Barry Jenkins' television adaptation of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. Barry Jenkins and the Legacies of Slavery should be required reading for courses onAmerican media, history, critical race theory, and womanism." -- Mark A. Reid, University of Florida "Not only does Delphine Letort offer a thoughtful analysis of this landmark series, but she also proposes a much-needed call for moral, ethical, and emotional approaches to TV studies. Her savvy ability to juggle close aesthetic and thematic analysis with the historical phenomena that underpin the fiction makes this book a valued text for those interested in television studies, cultural studies, African-American studies, or US History." -- Shannon Wells-Lassagne, University of Burgundy
