Hunter Thomas: Writing Portfolio
Portfolio of Work
The following is a collection of some of the work that I have done while working toward my MA at Auburn University. My work focuses mostly on identity on the screen; race, gender, sexuality, and any intersection thereof. Though I do incorporate literary studies into some of my pieces, my hope going forward is to fully invest in my interest in film and film history. The three articles I selected work together toward a collective vision of shedding light on identities on film that so often go unexplored or underexplored.
Beaten, Black, and Blue: Dysfunctional Hyper-Masculine Façades in Moonlight, Baldwin, & African American Modernism
Written for a seminar on Black Literary Modernisms with Dr. Julia Charles, this article came to fruition based on discussions of Black male masculinity and sexuality based on readings of James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room. The article examines the way that Baldwin, his life, and his novel influences - in tandem with the life experiences of playwright and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney - the creation of the 2016 film Moonlight. I do this through analysis of the lives of the two men in addition to close readings of the novel and the film through theoretical readings on masculinity and sexuality. This was the first piece that I wrote exploring cinema in an article-length, publishable format. Accepted to 2018's Southwest American/Popular Culture Conference but not presented due to scheduling conflicts.
You Better Shave: Pairing Toni Morrison and Blaxploitation Cinema from 1970-1973
This piece was written for a seminar on Radical Black Girlhood, also with Dr. Charles. It was inspired through the reading and discussion of the intersectional identity of Black girlhood in Toni Morrison's first two novels The Bluest Eye and Sula as well as a personal exploration of the cinematic movement of Blaxploitation from 1970s. This led me to finding connections between the introduction of Black women in the Blaxploitation movement and Morrison's work; I then began exploring the ways that certain characteristics of Morrison's characters, on the page, predated the sorts of strong Black women seen on the screen; this is an argument that I make through textual, historical, and cinematic analysis. Accepted to 2020's Midwestern Conference on Literature, Language, and Media but not presented due to cancellation by COVID-19 pandemic.
We Are Americans: Jordan Peele's New Protest Cinema
This piece was the first time that I wrote about film for a class - a seminar on Speculative Souths with Dr. Erich Nunn - without bringing in literary influences as well. It was inspired mainly through a viewing and discussion of Jordan Peele's film Get Out alongside the release of his follow-up film Us, which led me to do plenty of thinking about Blackness and genre. In the article, I make the argument - through an analysis of the two films as well as of film history - that Peele has carved out a new sort of protest cinema that would not be sustainable without the horror genre, and that its effectiveness is a result of both Peele's knack for social commentary and the conventions of the genre that he has chosen. Not yet submitted for publication or presentation.
The Natural Deconstruction of Entrapment: The Beguiled
This article serves as a great example of how I apply my own research interests to subjects that may not always line up with them, as it was written for a seminar on The Lure of Arcadia in Early Modern Literature with Dr. Deborah Solomon. It also serves as a good example of one of the sorts of formats that I hope to work in going forward, as Dr. Solomon encouraged us to tweak our work to fit our future goals. The article examines how gender operates in two different filmed adaptations of the novel The Beguiled - one directed by Don Siegel and one by Sofia Coppola - as well as how the change in gender identity behind the camera and temporal distance between the original and the remake each affect the thematic makeup of the narrative. This article was also my first publication, accepted and published in Bright Lights Film Journal.