"What's Normal Anyways?": Intersectionality in Forrest Gump
Class
Article
Department
English
Faculty Mentor
Joyce Kinkaid
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Lindon Barrett criticizes contemporary literary critics for excluding gender and class from a race-based approach to literature, offering instead 'intersectionality.' Literary criticism has typically taken one approach - simplifying analysis by focusing on race, or class, or gender only. An intersectional view of literature offers critics and readers a more encompassing view of culture in order to ascertain a more accurate perspective of contemporary society; I analyze this further to show that, although Barrett brought the term to the surface, society has been engaged in an intersectional approach in regards to film for decades. I expand current intersectional approaches to illuminate society's desire to better understand our own humanity and existence through multiple lenses. In regards to film, the popularity of Forrest Gump reveals society's affinity for such an intersectional approach to culture. Forrest Gump is not the only example of this affinity - the success of films like Django Unchained, The '60s, and The '70s, and TV shows like Mad Men and The West Wing attest to the subconscious desire for this all-inclusive view. Conventional perceptions of American society remark negatively on the passive, anti-intellectual nature of mass media. Instead, I argue that films like Forrest Gump illustrate society's need to understand the complexities of the world and the people who inhabit it through an intersectional lens.
Start Date
4-9-2015 10:00 AM
"What's Normal Anyways?": Intersectionality in Forrest Gump
Lindon Barrett criticizes contemporary literary critics for excluding gender and class from a race-based approach to literature, offering instead 'intersectionality.' Literary criticism has typically taken one approach - simplifying analysis by focusing on race, or class, or gender only. An intersectional view of literature offers critics and readers a more encompassing view of culture in order to ascertain a more accurate perspective of contemporary society; I analyze this further to show that, although Barrett brought the term to the surface, society has been engaged in an intersectional approach in regards to film for decades. I expand current intersectional approaches to illuminate society's desire to better understand our own humanity and existence through multiple lenses. In regards to film, the popularity of Forrest Gump reveals society's affinity for such an intersectional approach to culture. Forrest Gump is not the only example of this affinity - the success of films like Django Unchained, The '60s, and The '70s, and TV shows like Mad Men and The West Wing attest to the subconscious desire for this all-inclusive view. Conventional perceptions of American society remark negatively on the passive, anti-intellectual nature of mass media. Instead, I argue that films like Forrest Gump illustrate society's need to understand the complexities of the world and the people who inhabit it through an intersectional lens.