The Screen Construction Of Black Subjectivity

Tyler Perry, as an Africa American, has become a famous film director in Hollywood since the new century. Besides, he is also an excellent screenwriter, actor and producer. Since 2005, Tyler Perry earned his reputation in America films because of his screenplay Diary of a Mad Black Woman, then he wrote and directed a series of black comedy movies, such as Madea’s Family Reunion, Madea Goes to Jail and Madea’s Big Happy Family. In addition to comedy, he directed a number of serious dramas which truly reflected Africa American’s life, such as Daddy’s Little Girls, Meet the Browns and For Colored Girls. The way how Tyler Perry built black identity in his works is the starting point of this thesis. Firstly, it analyzes racial issues, the construction of black subject consciousness and the internal contradictions and differentiation caused by the rise of the middle class black community from perspectives of race and class. Secondly, it examines the racial and gender oppression that inflicted upon America black women, and discusses two types of special images of black men in Tyler Perry’s film. Madea, the most splendid character in his film, is also analyzed in this paper. Thirdly, it expounds the inheritance and revision in Tyler Perry’s film form mainstream Hollywood narration, and explores his way-to reveal black main body consciousness through narration. Finally, it analyzes Tyler Perry’s methods to highlight his own black identity in the aspect of artistic style. This paper concludes that Taylor Perry’s films are vivid reflections of the black community struggling with many challenges in real life, and their continuing negotiations with the white dominant plants, neighborhood and public space; at the same time, the films make a deep understanding of the identity crisis and self-adjustment that traditional black community experienced in modern America society.