Framing the 'art of stereotypy': The politics of race and representation in African American literary, visual, and performance culture, 1985--2005

Stereotypy is the controversial use of black stereotypes in the representational practice of African Americans artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and writers in the twentieth century. Because the racial stereotype in representation is directly related to America's musings about race, stereotypy has proven to be a viable mechanism to address the politics of black image (re)production and to problematize the relationship between race and representation in U.S. popular culture. Specifically, I argue that from the years 1985--2005, stereotypy departs from the manipulation of racial stereotype for political ends to a more aesthetically based practice. This dissertation explores how African American artists Spike Lee, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Kennedy, Cheryl Dunye, George C. Wolfe, Richard Wright, and Suzan-Lori Parks employ stereotypy as a discursive artistic practice to elucidate the politics of black cultural production.