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Full-Text Articles in American Studies
Belief And Performance, Morrison And Me, Koritha Mitchell
Belief And Performance, Morrison And Me, Koritha Mitchell
Koritha Mitchell
A chapter discussing the lessons I learned from Toni Morrison's THE BLUEST EYE that continue to guide me. The insights gained from that novel have informed my intellectual work and my ability to navigate the U.S. academy.
Queer Love And Urban Intimacies In Martial Law Manila, Robert Diaz
Queer Love And Urban Intimacies In Martial Law Manila, Robert Diaz
Robert Diaz
This article examines certain representations of Metropolitan Manila and the city’s queer intimacies during Martial Law. In particular, it analyzes Ishmael Bernal’s film Manila By Night (1980) and Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters (1990). Released during a time when the Marcoses secured rule through an over-production of their “love team,” and by IMF supported justifications for molding a “beautiful and efficient” Manila, Manila By Night challenges disciplinary plans for the city and its populace through the presence of queer characters that unabashedly love the dirty, dysfunctional and impoverished city. In a similar vein, Dogeaters incorporates characters that practice queer love as …
James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings The Blues For Mister Charlie, Koritha Mitchell
James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings The Blues For Mister Charlie, Koritha Mitchell
Koritha Mitchell
James Baldwin worked tirelessly to expose the myths that allowed Americans to delude themselves. Scholars have long recognized this as the driving force of his fiction and non-fiction, but this mission was also very much linked to Baldwin's conception of theater. This essay culls Baldwin's theater theory from his non-fiction, especially his seldom-discussed The Devil Finds Work (1976). Baldwin believed that theater could "re-create" people by helping us to re-discover our human connection, and he believed that stage actors could show the way. Baldwin's respect for stage actors develops over time, however. He reaches his conclusions only after realizing—in hindsight—how …