The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016): The Tale of Nat Turner’s Rebellion

This essay examines the memories of slavery shaped by Nate Parker in The Birth of a Nation. It shows how Parker uses the biopic as a narrative frame to turn the slave rebel into a hero and analyzes the impact of the visuals over the construction of a historically controversial figure. Parker, the es...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Delphine Letort
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2019-09-01
Series:Transatlantica : Revue d'Études Américaines
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/12096
Description
Summary:This essay examines the memories of slavery shaped by Nate Parker in The Birth of a Nation. It shows how Parker uses the biopic as a narrative frame to turn the slave rebel into a hero and analyzes the impact of the visuals over the construction of a historically controversial figure. Parker, the essay argues, has devised an aesthetic of slavery that aims to counter the visual legacy of the plantation genre and other existing representations of blackness.
ISSN:1765-2766