Résumé : |
The purpose of this seminar paper is to shed light on the way cinema impacts and shapes our perceptions of social reality and social identity, specifically regarding race, gender, and sex. The study will not only focus on socio-cultural aspects but will include artistic, economic, and historical reasons for the way representation and reception have evolved over the years. Given the extensive information available and the difference in operational processes, this paper will focus solely on Hollywood and major motion pictures and tv series, therefore disregarding —for the most part— auteur cinema and independent movies. For the same reasons, and because these themes are more largely based on, studied, and considered in the United States, the paper will primarily focus on American audiences, experiences, history, and racial issues. Finally, to gain proper hindsight on the matter, the starting point of the study will be the acknowledgment of Hattie McDaniel as the first Black actress to win an Oscar(1940), a paramount and unprecedented event that will help us span over Hollywood’s golden era until we reach the rise and new wave of streaming services, specifically Netflix, and the way they are instrumentalizing social issues and reaffirming social diversity and inclusion in popular media. |