Critical Race Theory and Jordan Peele's Get Out

Get Out. Candyman. The Sunken Place. The “Final Brother.” Wynter presents a pedagogical masterpiece that explores legacies of anti-Black violence at the intersections of horror films and critical race theory. Wynter’s brilliance is on full display in this exquisitely written book. In fastening the theoretical and artistic to each other, he centers Black articulations of oppression at a time when it is most politically urgent. * Robin R. Means Coleman, Professor of Communications Studies, Northwestern University, USA and author of Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present *
Both a primer in critical race theory and an exemplary work of cinematic close reading, Wynter makes a convincing case for Get Out as a film that short-circuits everything we thought we knew about the horror genre. Jordan Peele’s film, Wynter contends, is neither speculative nor allegorical but is rather a rigorously realistic portrayal of Black experience in the "traumatic present." Critical Race Theory and Jordan Peele’s Get Out offers an indispensable elaboration of the intersection between critical race theory and film. * Scott Krzych, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Colorado College, USA *
Conceptually rich, lucid, as timely and as harrowing as Get Out itself, Kevin Wynter’s compelling text puts Critical Race Theory and Peele’s film in a mutually illuminating dialog that fully does justice to both. Wynter mines the tension between history and ontology with rigor and elegance, giving full weight to pessimism but also insisting on the fundamental challenge CRT and Get Out leave us with: to ask, impossibly, how could things be otherwise, in the wake of slavery and racist violence? * Brian Wall, Associate Professor of Cinema, Binghamton University, USA *