Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence eds., "The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film" (Oxford UP, 2024)

About this episode

The episode discusses the exploration of Black horror cinema and its global implications as presented in 'The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film'.

Since the release of Jordan Peele's Academy Award-winning horror hit Get Out (2017), interest in Black horror films has erupted. This renewed intrigue in stories about Black life, history, culture, or "Blackness" has taken two forms. First, the history and politics of race have been centered in the horror genre. Second, Black horror has become an increasingly visible topic in mainstream discourses with scholars, critics, and fans contending that Black horror is seeing its so-called renaissance. However, critical attention to Blackness in horror has primarily focused on the U.S. and western world, despite Black stories having featured prominently in the genre-as actors, screenwriters, directors, producers-globally and across cultures.The essays in this handbook explore global Black horror cinema by interrogating Blackness and the ways in which it manifests in films across the diaspora and around the world. Chapters pose and answer questions including how taxonomies of race are presented; who is considered "Black?"; how is Blackness constructed in the culture in which it is produced and/or distributed?; How is horror defined and represented globally and/or culturally?; and what…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guests: Robin R. Means Coleman, Novotny Lawrence

Topics covered

• Black horror cinema
• global Blackness
• race in horror
• Black horror renaissance
• cultural representation

Keywords

• Black horror
• horror genre
• film studies
• cultural analysis
• race and identity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxford UP

Books & works: The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film, Get Out

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