Racialized Documentary Reception of Ken Burns' Jazz

Abstract

This essay investigates the critical reception of the documentary Jazz: The Story of America's Music , directed by Ken Burns and shown on PBS in 2001. Although studies on reception are now common regarding television, the reception of documentary is an underexplored area. Typically, documentary theory has placed an emphasis on truth and epistemology; only recently have there been inquiries on audiences. Expanding on the latter contributions, the author looks at critics' reception of the documentary and the way identity and truth related to racialized interpretations of the text. The author's analysis suggests that these viewers responded strongly to the documentary's racial arguments. However, the responses were not determined by the viewer's race. To reconcile this finding with an idea of race as determinant of reception, the author proposes that it is not the viewer's racial identity but the function of race in the viewer's life that determines modes of reception.

Keywords

race reception documentary political identity ethnicity

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