Irish and African American Cinema

Maria Pramaggiore is Associate Professor and Director of Film Studies at North Carolina State University. She is the coauthor (with Tom Wallis) of Film: A Critical Introduction and the coeditor (with Donald E. Hall) of RePresenting Bisexualities: Subjects and Cultures of Fluid Desire.

"The revelation of this volume is the author's ability to perform top-notch critical analysis of both Irish and African American films, two seemingly disparate concentrations in cinema studies … specialists in African American or Irish film will be well served by this volume, not only by the analysis but also by Pramaggiore's theorization of cinematic identity formation and appropriation … By demonstrating how cinematic characters 'perform' gender, race, and ethnicity, Pramaggiore furthers the work of Judith Butler and others." — CHOICE"An extremely original, engaging, and provocative reading of a range of important films. This book will have an impact on a number of broad cultural concerns: Black histories and culture, race and ethnic studies in general, Irish studies, and Irish and American film studies in particular." — Martin McLoone, author of Irish Film: The Emergence of a Contemporary Cinema"A thoughtful and compelling interrogation of the essentialist discourses of national and ethnic cinema. The book is an important addition to the literature of world cinema." — Krin Gabbard, author of Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture

• IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Identifying Others2. Sampling Blackness: Music and Identification in the Films of Neil Jordan and Spike Lee3. "It’s a Wise Child that Knows His Own Father": Pregnant Performances and Maternal Mythologies4. Culturing Violence: Masculine Identification in Irish and African American Gangster Films5. "Both Sides of the Epic": Identification in the Nonessentialist WesternConclusion: Film Identification and Postmodern Identity PoliticNotesWorks Consulted Index