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- Title
« Blesser » le spectateur blanc américain : Les Nègres aux États-Unis, 1961-1964 et 2003.
- Authors
AMIN, KADJI
- Abstract
This article examines how Jean Genet's play The Blacks was received in the United States during two very different periods in its racial history: the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, and the "post-racial" 2000s as it is sometimes called. It seeks to evaluate the play's synergy in terms of its radicalized performance at each of these historical moments. Based on a reading of his long unpublished 1956-1951 preface, I argue that, paradoxically, it is the 2003 Harlem Classical Theater production that best plays on its social context in order to achieve Genet's objective of "wounding" the white spectator. I f The Blacks failed to rattle the white New York spectator of the 1960s, it is because the Civil Rights Movement had already put the spotlight on the violence of white supremacy and the racial injustices and inequities in the U.S. However, by playing on the surprising similarities between Paris during the twilight years of the French Empire and the supposedly "post-racial" contemporary America, Christopher McElroen's 2003 production deftly depicts Genet's symbolic aggression aimed at white spectators.
- Subjects
BLACKS, The (Theatrical production); GENET, Jean, 1910-1986; 20TH century drama; THEATER history; RACE in the theater; AMERICAN civil rights movement; POSTRACIALISM; MCELROEN, Christopher; HISTORY of race relations in the United States
- Publication
Études Françaises, 2015, Vol 51, Issue 1, p67
- ISSN
0014-2085
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.7202/1028521ar