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http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8634
Title: | Locating the ‘radical’ in 'Shoot the Messenger' |
Authors: | Malik, S |
Keywords: | Shoot the Messenger;Radical;Drama;BBC;Black;Community;Representation;Stereotypes;Authorship;Realism |
Issue Date: | 2013 |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
Citation: | Journal of British Cinema and Television, 10(1), 187 - 205, 2013 |
Abstract: | The 2006 BBC drama Shoot the Messenger is based on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale, accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. The allegation triggers Joe's mental breakdown which is articulated, through Joe's first-person narration, as a vindictive loathing of Black people. In turn, a range of common stereotypical characterisations and discourses based on a Black culture of hypocrisy, blame and entitlement is presented. The text is therefore laid wide open to a critique of its neo-conservatism and hegemonic narratives of Black Britishness. However, the drama's presentation of Black mental illness suggests that Shoot the Messenger may also be interpreted as a critique of social inequality and the destabilising effects of living with ethnicised social categories. Through an analysis of issues of representation, the article reclaims this controversial text as a radical drama and examines its implications for and within a critical cultural politics of ‘race’ and representation. |
Description: | This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below, copyright 2013 @ Edinburgh University Press. |
URI: | http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/jbctv.2013.0129 http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8634 |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2013.0129 |
ISSN: | 1743-4521 |
Appears in Collections: | Sociology Dept of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers |
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