“You Can Really Make the Story Your Own”
Taking Back Candyman
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20249483 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marco Petrelli (0000-0003-1560-861X, University of Pisa, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 103 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0787 • E-ISSN: 2076-0787 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/h12050103 |
| OpenAlex | W4386849697 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
This essay offers a comparative analysis of Bernard Rose’s 1992 Candyman and its 2021 sequel directed by Nia DaCosta. Through an intertextual approach informed by gothic studies, narratology, and critical race theory, the essay shows how DaCosta’s film establishes a transformative relationship with its predecessor. In the 2021 film, Candyman rewrites the story of the original, disrupts its stereotypical representation of Blackness, and appropriates the horror genre to give voice to the peculiar anxieties of contemporary African American life. In so doing, DaCosta’s film also challenges classic gothic tropes of horrific Blackness while at the same time pushing back against dominant narratives on race to reclaim space for a discussion on racial relations in America filtered through a Black lens
Aesthetics · Art · Critical race theory · Literature · Narrative · Narratology · Political science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking · Gender Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Spatial and Cultural Studies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|