Black women’s work in television has been, since the beginning, a negotiation. Black Women and the Changing Television Landscape explores the steps black women, as actors, directors, and producers, have taken to improve representations of black people on the small screen. Beginning with The Beulah Show, Anderson articulates the interrelationship between US culture and the televisual, demonstrating the conditions under which black women particularly, and black people generally, exist in popular culture.
Lisa M. Anderson is an associate professor of women and gender studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University, USA. She is the author of Black Feminism in Contemporary Drama (2008) and Mammies No More: The Changing Image of Black Women on Stage and Screen (1998). Her research interests include Black feminist speculative fiction and black queer and trans representations.
List of FiguresAcknowledgementsDedicationIntroduction: An Ambivalent Relationship with Television1. Fighting the Stereotypes, 1948-52: The Beulah Show and Its Actors2. Julia, The "Black Lady" of 1960s Television3. Not Such "Good Times": The Limits of Black Actors' Influence4. Creating a "Different World" in Television: Black Women Showrunners in the 1990s5. Twenty-First Century Black WomanhoodConclusion: Negotiating HollywoodBibliographyIndex
[Lisa M. Anderson] powerfully describes the evolving position of Black women in this industry, evaluating which factors enable both these true and stereotyped representations, and which factors have the capacity to change Black characters and storylines on television overall.
