Pages de Jean Kempf
— Université
Lumière - Lyon 2 —
Département d'études du monde anglophone
Interview of Sara
Antonelli, University Roma III by Héléna Bazin, Université Lyon II (M2 Recherche) Sara Antonelli is an Italian university professor specializing in northern
American studies. She took part in writing the book Gordon Parks: une histoire américaine together with Alessandra Mauro.
Sara Antonelli came all the way from Rome to present us her work on Gordon Parks
during the northern American workshop. I met her a couple of days before her
conference, at the ENS Lyon on October 2nd 2014.
Héléna Bazin: Thank you, Sara Antonelli,
for receiving me. I must say you did a wonderful job editing this book. But
why did you choose to work on Gordon Parks? Why did you choose these pictures
rather than others? Is their a precise message you wanted to share?
HB: Talking of this family epic, how is the
family nucleus pictured? Is it a condemnation of segregation or does it deliver
a message of hope? SA: When
you put them side by side, you can’t help noticing the similarities beween
Parks’ photograph and Grant
Wood’s painting. As a matter of fact, Ella Watson has the same facial
expression as Wood’s characters: sharp, determined look and tight lips, not
really smiling. On the painting, the man is holding a garden fork, just as Ella
Watson is holding a broom and a mop. All three items can be used as weapons
against an illusory ideal symbolized by the blurred American flag in the
picture, and by the closed house in the painting. These two pieces of art served
as models to Eldridge
Cleaver’s picture of Huey
Newton sitting in front of a kind of tapestry and holding a rifle and a
lance. These pictures resound as a revolutionary toll within a very American
tradition. |
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