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Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
Bridgerton (2020-), the first original series to come out of Netflix’s overall deal with writer/producer Shonda Rhimes, reportedly broke the platform's viewership records, with 82 million households watching the series in the first month after its release. Rhimes and Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen reinvent the Regency period of Julia Quinn’s novels to include people of color as British aristocrats. In a conversation between protagonist Simon Bassett (Regé-Jean Page) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), the characters reveal that it was the transformative power of romantic love between England’s white king and black queen that resolved the inherent tensions of the British imperial project and made it possible for people of color, like themselves, to occupy positions of nobility. This presentation bridges scholarship on race and media, popular romance, and (post)colonialism to examine Bridgerton’s (post)racial fantasy. Heralded by some as a progressive move for diversity and inclusion, this project situates Bridgerton within Kristen Warner’s framework of plastic representation, in which she argues “images in the era of representation matters become hollowed, malleable signs with artificial origins.” I assert that the plastic representation of Bridgerton’s casting intensifies popular romance’s tradition of using romantic love to suture the problems of social stratification and systems of dominance (Kamblé 2014). Further, I argue the series' reinvention and erasure of the realities of British colonial history paired with the utopian fantasy of racial harmony actually reify many of the organizing logics of racism and patriarchy that the series is purportedly interested in dismantling.
“If This Is to Work, We Must Appear Madly in Love”: Imperial Erasure and Bridgerton’s (Post)Racial Fantasy
Bridgerton (2020-), the first original series to come out of Netflix’s overall deal with writer/producer Shonda Rhimes, reportedly broke the platform's viewership records, with 82 million households watching the series in the first month after its release. Rhimes and Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen reinvent the Regency period of Julia Quinn’s novels to include people of color as British aristocrats. In a conversation between protagonist Simon Bassett (Regé-Jean Page) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), the characters reveal that it was the transformative power of romantic love between England’s white king and black queen that resolved the inherent tensions of the British imperial project and made it possible for people of color, like themselves, to occupy positions of nobility. This presentation bridges scholarship on race and media, popular romance, and (post)colonialism to examine Bridgerton’s (post)racial fantasy. Heralded by some as a progressive move for diversity and inclusion, this project situates Bridgerton within Kristen Warner’s framework of plastic representation, in which she argues “images in the era of representation matters become hollowed, malleable signs with artificial origins.” I assert that the plastic representation of Bridgerton’s casting intensifies popular romance’s tradition of using romantic love to suture the problems of social stratification and systems of dominance (Kamblé 2014). Further, I argue the series' reinvention and erasure of the realities of British colonial history paired with the utopian fantasy of racial harmony actually reify many of the organizing logics of racism and patriarchy that the series is purportedly interested in dismantling.
Bio
Jacqueline Johnson (she/her) is a PhD Student in the Division of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. She received her BA in Sociology from Boston University and her MA in Media Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research is centered on the relationship between race, gender, television, and digital platforms, and her dissertation project analyzes Black women and the romance genre across different types of media.