Geography Written in Lightning: Race, Sexuality, and Regulatory Aesthetics in The Birth of a Nation

Abstract

D. W. Griffith's racist masterpiece, The Birth of a Nation (1915), offers a potent imaginative geography of race, sexuality, and political agency that resonates nearly a century after its production. Prior to national release, the film was reviewed and approved by the National Board of Censorship, but on protest by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Board reviewed its decision and mandated changes. The archival traces of this moment are read through the concept of a “regulatory aesthetic,” which enables a fuller consideration of the aesthetic effects, both representational and affective, of regulatory, governmental, and political projects such as the production and regulatory reception of Birth and the geographies they produce. Through this lens, a reading of the National Board's changes to the film in tandem with the film itself shows that white agency was fractured by region, with the northern reformers staffing the Board claiming racial innocence to resist film director and southerner D. W. Griffith's incitement to historical complicity with racism and to bolster its claim to be a nationally representative yet “disinterested” regulatory body. Simultaneously the Board sought to marginalize African American agency, specifically the protests of the NAACP, through a combination of attenuating the affective links between black characters and white spectators and acquiescing to the film's multiscalar geographies of exclusion from political space. This reading of the National Board's regulatory aesthetic underscores how cultural productions have material, political effects on and off the screen.

La obra maestra racista de D. W. Griffith, El nacimiento de una nación (1915), presenta una potente geografía imaginativa de raza, sexualidad y agencia política que sigue resonando cerca de un siglo después de su producción. Antes de su lanzamiento público nacional, la película fue examinada y aprobada por la Junta Nacional de Censura, pero debido a la protesta de la Asociación Nacional para el Progreso de la Gente de Color [NAACP, sigla en inglés], la Junta revisó su decisión y ordenó hacer cambios. Los rastros archivados de este momento son interpretados mediante el concepto de “estética reguladora”, que permite una consideración más completa de los efectos estéticos, tanto representacionales como afectivos, de proyectos reguladores, gubernamentales y políticos, tales como la producción y acogida regulada del Nacimiento y de las geografías que aquellos producen. A través de este lente, una interpretación de los cambios introducidos por la Junta Nacional a la película junto con el contenido de la propia película muestran que la agencia blanca se partió regionalmente, con los reformistas del norte que hacían parte de la Junta reclamando inocencia racial para hacer resistencia al director de la película y la incitación del sureño D. W. Griffith a la complicidad histórica con el racismo y a reafirmar su pretensión de ser un cuerpo nacionalmente representativo pero también “desinteresado”. Simultáneamente la Junta buscó marginar la agencia africano-americana, específicamente las protestas de la NAACP, atenuando los lazos afectivos entre caracteres negros y espectadores blancos a la vez que consintiendo las geografías multiescalares de exclusión del espacio político de la película. Esta lectura de la estética reguladora de la Junta Nacional pone al descubierto la manera como las producciones culturales tienen efectos políticos y materiales dentro y fuera de la pantalla.

Key Words:

• aesthetics
• cinema
• race
• regulation
• sexuality

Palabras clave:

• estética
• cine
• raza
• regulación
• sexualidad

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Nicky Gregson, Peter Jackson, Tariq Jazeel, Pat Noxolo, the three referees, and Audrey Kobayashi as editor for their very helpful comments and suggestions during the writing of this article.

Notes

The U.S. Constitution proscribes people of foreign birth from holding the presidency, and “birther” refers to those who doubt Barack Obama's birth in the United States and thus his legitimacy in office.

The National Board of Censorship would change its name to the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures in 1916, and it is the latter name under which its records have been archived in New York and therefore referenced here.

As heuristics for the initial framing of research, it is important to recognize that these do not in themselves provide theories of what their sites actually are or how they relate.

That is, the first cut viewed by the Board. The film had several commercial previews in California, but it is unknown whether Griffith edited the film again before handing it over to the Board for review.

I thank Pat Noxolo for this very succinct formulation.