ABSTRACT
This chapter's focus on the institution of slavery through the prism of popular cultural film offers the field of education new opportunities to explore a rarely emphasized subject, the institution of slavery. It analyzes Django Unchained and 12 Years a Slave as competing slave narratives in the plantation genre of American film. The chapter then outlines key tenants of majoritarian narratives and counter-narratives in critical race discourses in popular culture. Doing a cultural critique that contrast Django versus Solomon Northup, for some, is an unfair comparison. In addition, critical race scholars have used a number of fictional storytelling methods to convey particular truths in its critiques of redressing racial oppression in society. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion; critiquing how two different narratives about the same event, slavery, can have empowering or disempowering discourses that meet the criteria of monolithic or complex and heterogeneous representations of African American male identities in American film.
