Negociating Power: Revision, Subversion and Bhabha’s Mimicry Dynamics in Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012) and the Black American Dream

Abstract

[eng] Slavery and its violent rhetoric are frequently presented on the screen as prominent witnesses of a grim U.S. period. This research paper addresses a critical reading on how Django Unchained (2012), an outstanding contemporary Western film, uses subversion to encourage the Black American dream, or dissimilarly, as a tool for reinforcing racial inequalities. This paper examines film’s power dynamics and apparatuses in perpetrating slavery’s outrageous discourse and the hegemonic notion of “race”. This project of rethinking history applies various scholarly perspectives to scrutinize how subversion of the revisionist Western, the cowboy’s role stratagem, and the authoritarian dynamics through mimicry constitute a pivotal step toward the black American dream. For this, a profound analysis of Django will be executed, not only presenting him as a revengeful character but also as a resilient and recognised individual. Django Unchained tallies a fictional narrative offering an alternative view of a rebellious slave, while not sacrificing altogether the historical portrait of the Antebellum period.