The cultural and historical significance of the film “12 Years A Slave” has changed and reshaped the views and culture of African Americans with the roles they have as a race in society – owing to the racial formation and ‘performance’

Order Description

Research Topic:
I am going to research mainly about the cultural and historical significance of the film “12 Years A Slave” in the United States as well as how it has affected and changed the views of the African-Americans. The film is relevant to the African Diaspora in the context that black slavery as a subject of film today is possible because it has, historically, been such an important part of past cultural and intellectual productions, particularly those researched, authored, danced, painted, sung and rapped by persons of African descent and students of the African diaspora experience. My mission is to use the paper to analyze the film as a whole, and how the topics found in it such as slavery as a moral cancer, freedom, injustice and the inherent dignity of all humanity come into the big picture.
Thesis: The cultural and historical significance of the film “12 Years A Slave” has changed and reshaped the views and culture of African Americans with the roles they have as a race in society – owing to the racial formation and ‘performance’ portrayed in the film.
Thesis —
• Road map, be specific, relate to your body paragraphs
• So what? Connect it to broader issues, related to the African Diaspora class
Research Questions:
1) How can the stories portrayed in film of black enslavement continue to awaken our sense of the plight of persons in our own societies? Analyze this through racial formation.
2) How does the narrative in 12 Years A Slave illustrate their spiritual growth, ethical and racial identity development and lastly the will for resistance as they find strength to escape?
3) What significance does the movie has in relation to the practice of the “chattel bondage” or human slavery, and what consequences does it have on the lives of those who are involved and affected? Focus your question to theories of race to analyze the film.
Scholarly Sources (must be academic sources) – 2 books, 3 articles, 1 from class
1) Lieblich, Mollie. “The Cultural Significance of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave.” US History Scene. N.p., 15 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
*The article emphasizes on the slave narrative of Solomon Northup as well as the themes found in the story like violence, plantation work, and the desecration of the family. The author argues that these narratives serve as important cultural reminders of an ugly part of American history that left its imprint on those who were its victims as well as on American society as a whole. It uses publications such as “Philip S. Foner, Introduction to Twelve Years A Slave, by Solomon Northup” and oral history interviews conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as sources. This text gives me a better insight of the impact the film has on society and how it is able to reshape the culture that has been long established way before its release.
2) Northup, Solomon, Sue L. Eakin, and Joseph Logsdon. Twelve Years a Slave. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1968. Print.
*The essay that I’m going to write about is basically all derived from this book, so it is definitely a required tool for me to use and take advantage of. Many of the statements contained in the book are corroborated by abundant evidence—others rest entirely upon Solomon’s assertion.
– Please look up articles in cinema journals about Black films about slavery or books on Black film.