Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 208
•
Trim: 6 x 8¾
978-0-8108-9622-2 • Paperback • December 2017 • $33.00 • (£25.00)
978-1-4422-4186-2 • eBook • May 2015 • $31.00 • (£25.00)
Shayne Lee is associate professor of sociology at the University of Houston. He has appeared on CNN, ABC, and Fox, blogs for The Huffington Post, and has been interviewed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, USA Today, and other popular media outlets to comment on American religion and culture. He is the author of several books, including T.D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher.
Introduction
1. The Dream and the Nightmare: Perry’s Socioeconomic Crossroads
2. Wanting More: Perry’s Populist Critique
3. Redemptive Madness: Perry’s Existential Superwomen
4. Relational Religion: Perry’s Folk-Modern Spirituality
5. Pragmatist Cinema: Perry’s Five Functions of Art
Appendix
Filmography
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Lee is a sociologist, and his approach to the sociology—or is it economics?—in Tyler Perry's films is 100 percent admirable: he writes that he 'watched each movie no less than ten times, carefully coding and cataloguing themes, plots, and character development regarding their relation to pertinent socio-cultural themes.' This is the first book-length study of Perry, and Lee is brilliant at perceiving clearly, not sentimentally, the role of religion. . . .The author never perceives movies as movies; he could be talking about novels. He deals with the meaning of ten films, looking at 'the dream and the nightmare' of blacks. Dreams are strength, education, devotion, love, freedom, blessings. Nightmares are poverty, hunger, drugs, white domination, suffering, inequality, prison, hatred, injustice, rape, and best of all, madness (especially in the Madea films). The book is lovingly informative, and Lee knows the context of the films (be it reality, novels, or other films). Written in clear prose, this is a surprisingly important book, especially for those interested in the sociology of film. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
— Choice Reviews
Lee's book clearly demonstrates the necessity of scholarly treatments of Perry's oeuvre. Quite simply, to ignore Perry is to ignore a central figure not just in Black film but American independent film. There is still much work to be done on Perry and his media empire, including his use of genre and seriality, but Lee's book is a welcome contribution to the evolving Tyler Perry discourse.
— Journal of Popular Film and Television
Shayne Lee’s Tyler Perry’s America, the first book-length study of Perry’s movies, sheds the most positive light on the artist and his work.... Lee’s study systematically covers all of Perry’s work—from his debut film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), up to and including Good Deeds (2012)—a total of eleven productions.... The author craftily links a large number of classic and contemporary filmmakers and films, some focused on African American culture and some not, to Perry and his collection. So while Humphrey Bogart’s character in the film Key Largo (1948) appears at the beginning of chapter 2, the book’s appendix and chapter 5 are more general and thus noteworthy. The former is about the social import of black film and new promising directions it should take; sociologists will be especially attracted to it. The latter, treating five functions of art that are implicit in Perry’s work, will appeal to readers interested in a larger American pragmatist tradition of artistic production.
— American Quarterly
It is impossible to understand modern America without understanding the phenomenon that is Tyler Perry. In this book, Shayne Lee does a masterful job bringing us into the world of Tyler Perry films and helping us understand what they tell us about ourselves. A riveting read; be prepared to be surprised.
— Michael Emerson, Rice University; author of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America
In Tyler Perry's America: Inside His Films, sociologist Shayne Lee offers an unmatched and unrivaled scholarly consideration of the sociocultural relevance of Perry's oeuvre for a post–civil rights, post-soul era. With a keen eye towards class, religion, and race, among a host of other domains, and with a new approach to evaluation at hand, Lee ups the analytical ante by transgressing the all-too-easy conflict management and moral maintenance analyses that have shaped previous treatments of this and other subjects. Lee offers here a compelling, rigorous sociological approach to his data that sets a new standard of engagement that future treatments will have to, no doubt, consider.
— Monica R. Miller, Lehigh University; author of Religion and Hip Hop
Gives Tyler Perry his due as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation
Draws on eleven of Tyler Perry’s feature-length films, from Madea Goes to Jail to Good Deeds
Engages with the complexities of Perry’s rich characters
Looks at key themes in Tyler Perry films, such as race, gender, class, and religion, and what they show about African American life today
Explores why Tyler Perry’s films are wildly popular and what they offer to their audiences
Provides basic background information on Tyler Perry that is helpful to understanding his films and his take on African American life
Includes black & white film stills and a filmography