Events

view times

Don Belton’s writings have appeared in literary reviews, literature anthologies, cultural journals, and popular magazines and newspapers. Here, he proposes a discussion on black queer identity and the semiotics of shame. The presentation will focus on the performer Michael Jackson, exploring the narrative of his celebrity in specific relation to the cultural myth of the tragic mulatto. To that end, Belton will provide readings of clips from Jackson’s television interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Diane Sawyer in conjunction with clips from the 1939 and 1959 version of the classic Hollywood “passing” narrative film Imitation of Life. Belton is currently a professor of English at Macalester College, Minnesota.