Don't wait for permission

Ava DuVernay as a Black female intellectual and political artist

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4823628
AutoresTeresa Hagan (0000-0001-6216-1406, University of East Anglia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen19
Número1
Páginas43-62
Fecha de publicación2022-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaComparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14775700.2022.2029332
OpenAlexW4210480754
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas22

Black intellectualism, particularly in the public sphere, tends to be associated with male figures from the academy. This trend risks excluding a broader range of viewpoints and traditions - particularly the contributions of Black women, artists and community organisers whose intellectual praxis has been wrought from experiences outside the academic paradigm. This article argues that filmmaker and activist Ava DuVernay should be recognised as a Black female public intellectual. It demonstrates how DuVernay uses her work to grapple with the racial histories, philosophies and ideologies which have permeated American history and society. An artist-intellectual-activist, DuVernay sits in a historical lineage of Black artists employing visual cultures to interrogate and resist the operation of racism in the United States. Her work centres and explores Black lives, particularly women, rendering Black characters as complex and multifarious - an act of intellectual rebellion against a hegemonic narrative that centres whiteness, a narrative which has long dominated mainstream film. Through intellectual labour adjacent to her filmmaking, DuVernay also works to promote the perspectives of women and people of colour as interventions in the national imaginary. Ava DuVernay’s work and approach demonstrate that a multiplicity of intellectual identities exist beyond the academy

Art · Hegemony · Intellectual history · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sensationalism · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Race, History, and American Society