Race on the QT: Blackness and the Films of Quentin Tarantino

Adilifu Nama

Published by University of Texas Press 2015

Race on the QT

Blackness and the Films of Quentin Tarantino

Adilifu Nama

https://doi.org/10.7560/768147

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner, Ray & Pat Browne Award for Best Reference/Primary Source Work in Popular and American Culture, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, 2016

Known for their violence and prolific profanity, including free use of the n-word, the films of Quentin Tarantino, like the director himself, chronically blurt out in polite company what is extremely problematic even when deliberated in private. Consequently, there is an uncomfortable and often awkward frankness associated with virtually all of Tarantino’s films, particularly when it comes to race and blackness. Yet beyond the debate over whether Tarantino is or is not racist is the fact that his films effectively articulate racial anxieties circulating in American society as they engage longstanding racial discourses and hint at emerging trends. This radical racial politics—always present in Tarantino’s films but kept very much on the quiet—is the subject of Race on the QT.

Adilifu Nama concisely deconstructs and reassembles the racial dynamics woven into Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained, as they relate to historical and current racial issues in America. Nama’s eclectic fusion of cultural criticism and film analysis looks beyond the director’s personal racial attitudes and focuses on what Tarantino’s filmic body of work has said and is saying about race in America symbolically, metaphorically, literally, impolitely, cynically, sarcastically, crudely, controversially, and brilliantly.

Author / Editor information

Adilifu Nama is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author of the award-winning books Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes and Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film.

Reviews

Nama’s book traces the racial topicality of Tarantino’s films to his fascination with the subversive and racially empowering features of Blaxploitation cinema. It confronts the racial frankness in Tarantino’s films rather than the man himself, examining what they say about race in America with a critical dynamism and a clarity of perspective that makes enjoyable and provocative reading.

— Times Literary Supplement

Like never before, Nama’s Race on the QT scrapes back those dermal layers of race and racism grafted on Tarantino’s films. Under Nama’s deft surgical hand it’s all peeled back for view. Mainline Nama’s analytic tour de force—if you dare! It’ll change you and everything you imagined about high-octane cinema in the U.S.

— Frederick Luis Aldama, Arts & Humanities Distinguished Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar at the Ohio State University, and author recently of The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Reservoir Dogs and True Romance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter 2. Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Chapter 3. Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, and Death Proof Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Chapter 4. Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Coda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 184

eBook

Published: February 19, 2015
ISBN: 9780292772373