Hello Stranger

Abstract

Research Article| June 01 2023 Hello Stranger: Ellipsis and Song in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight Julie Beth Napolin Julie Beth Napolin Julie Beth Napolin is an associate professor of digital humanities at The New School. Her first book, The Fact of Resonance: Modernist Acoustics and Narrative Form (Fordham UP, 2020) was shortlisted for the Memory Studies Association First Book Award. She has published several essays on sound, music, and race in literature and media in such venues as Symploke and qui parle. She is currently writing a book on strategies of recitation and remediation in twentieth-century American culture, media, and performance. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Popular Music Studies (2023) 35 (2): 10–14. https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.2.10 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Julie Beth Napolin; Hello Stranger: Ellipsis and Song in Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight. Journal of Popular Music Studies 1 June 2023; 35 (2): 10–14. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2023.35.2.10 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of Popular Music Studies Search Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight (2016) follows its young protagonist, Chiron, through three different selves, from childhood in the 1980s, when he is known as “Little,” into adulthood, when he is known as “Black.”1 The time between each era is narratively marked by a long ellipsis; in each, we meet him as if for the first time. The final third of the film follows the now-adult Black, and its action revolves around a late-night call from his old friend, Kevin, that comes as if from the forgotten past. The two have not seen each other since they were teenagers. Kevin is the only person with whom Chiron has ever experienced sexual intimacy. Kevin says he is calling after so long because he had heard a song that reminded him of his old friend, but he withholds the tune’s name. The call is enough to pivot the gravity of the action: Black... You do not currently have access to this content.