Literature Review on Books

These are some of the books that I felt affected the direction of research for my dissertation positively. After reading Bogle and Koven's evaluations on black films and black actors/actresses presence in Hollywood, I realised that I should change my focus to black people in British cinema and television because the research conducted on this topic were carried out in the early 2000s and an updated research would allow me to see if there had been any improvements made.

Jim Pines book featuring interviews by Black British actors, actresses, filmmakers and directors gave an information foundation of research to start looking into British cinema and television history. The primary accounts given by these artists illustrated how the media industry worked from the year 1936.

1. Toms coons mulattoes mammies and bucks by Donald Bogle


This book was the first to inform me of my research topic. It focuses on the history of black presence in American television and movies. The information is very much in depth with facts about the film industry and the actors and actresses working in it. Donald Bogle gives as much historical facts and opinions on how he felt the media industry was treating black people.  It was very helpful because it explained the main character tropes found in early films and still present today but remixed with multiple tropes to disguise the racial traits commonly used back in the day when black stars were hired in entertainment. There are explanations on character tropes such as black brute, the mammy, the coon, the tom and jester types, these tropes were created as a result of post-slavery ideology and view of the Africans. There is information about the rise of independent black films made by black filmmakers which helped portray a different view of the black life in America. The chapters talking about the emergence of black producers and directors is what helped form my research question, it created a curiosity about the amount of present black filmmakers and producers in the media industry today. I was intrigued to find out how over time whether the media industry is keen on producing more diverse content on television or if it follows the old rules from the early 1900s.

2. Blaxploitation films by Mikel J Koven 

I enjoyed reading this book, though it was a smaller review than Donald Bogle’s Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks. The book focuses on films that were released during the Blaxploitation era. He explains this era emerged when white-owned film companies wanted to capitalise on the black genre audience. It did not produce films that improved the black image but played into the stereotypical notions. Films such as Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss, Coffy, Shaft and Superfly became iconic films of that era in black culture.  Koven explains the storylines of each Blaxploitation film and gives his verdict on whether it is well written, constructed film. He showed the common theme between these movies was the style they were shot and made. Most films were shot in a documentary style, as if they were giving an insight into the daily lives of black Americans. The films came with very popular soundtracks that have become classic songs in history. Through this film, white audiences learned of jazz, rock and hip-hop that the black communities would entertain themselves to. Though most films were violent and over sexualized their characters, especially the female characters such as Pam Grier.  Since my research went onto focusing on television and documentary shows, I am not using this book currently as part of my research. However, reading it informed me of what has been researched in the past, and it was an important book to know and understand the history behind the Blaxploitation era, it helped to push me in my current direction of research.

3.  Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race in News and Entertainment by Stephanie Greco Larson


A book I purchased myself, which I found very useful later on. This book is very large with a lot of information and facts. It talks about minority races in America, such as Mexicans, Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans and Asian American.
There are more races identified but that was to outline the main chapters.
I focused on the chapters discussing African Americans on the politics of race in news and entertainment. It is still broad on this topic, Larson talks about stereotyping in entertainment media and how these stereotypes, mostly negative are exercised to justify white control and authority.  Larson discusses how the media plays into the reality of society, repetitive patterns seen in media start to influence and justify our perceptions of reality, this works unconscious and consciously. Though it focuses mostly on African Americans, and minorities in America, it did highlight similar issues that British Africans face and how racism in media occurs.
‘…filmmakers assume that their black character does not need cultural references (other than occasional jokes about race) or a semblance of a black community to anchor her.’ (Larson, Pg. 24, 2005)

This book is useful because the information it holds on African Americans, as I have mentioned is similar to British Africans so this does not render it useless in my bibliography. It does not talk about post colonialism theory however; it talks about racism theory and ideology briefly in the media.


4. African Images: Racism and The End of Anthropology by Peter Rigby

This book raised topics such as scientific racism and the study of race anthropology. Anthropology is the study of humankind, so with this book focusing on racial ideas was very useful as part of my theory research.
The language and style of the book was highly academic so it was hard at first to grasp the context of the chapters.

In the theory of racism, Rigby highlights the connection of racism to capitalism. It states that it is an internal component in the human race.










5. Black and white in colour black people in British television since 1936 by Jim Pines


This interview-written book was very informative since I did not know much about black actors and actresses working in the entertainment and media industry.
It features interviews with black entertainers that went on to work in theatre, shows and televisions.
I found that many of these entertainers originated from the West Indies, after decolonisation, many came to work.
The book is written in a specific timeframe to understand how each actor/actresses presence influenced the new comers and their career paths. Through the fight of trying to get work in theatre and television, organisations were set up by some of these entertainers to provide future people who came from Africa and Asia a place to stay, settle in and find work. Slowly, it made a statement that more Asian and African people should be given more roles regardless of their race and be able to perform in a variety of dramas, instead of mainly comedy genres.
The actors and actresses talked about their lives and how they entered the media industry and most importantly ended with their thoughts on how the industry is currently in the 21^st century.  The focus on Britain and the migration of many Africans has informed me of the post-colonial consequences that Britain faced.
The book is a well written document of the racist encounters some of these performers faced and how directors during that 20^th century treated black artists. This gives me a timeframe to discuss and compare it to today.