Abstract
This article focuses on how popular culture relates to both society and politics, as a barometer of the present. In a sense, popular culture both mirrors and articulates specific ways of understanding society, the present. In this article, we will investigate one specific expression of popular culture, the African American action movie hero Shaft, and how this character appears in different shapes, in different times and contexts. The aim of the article is to examine how the character Shaft appears in three movies, from 1971, 2000 and 2019. This examination draws attention to how three different shapes of Shaft materialise, with different values attributed to the character of Shaft. Specific focus is put on the socio-political expressions of the day and the localities where the movies unfold. The analysis highlights three different versions of Shaft, each formed in accordance with the socio-political expressions of the day and manifesting different specific historical contexts. The first version actively portrays the political struggles carried out in the civil rights era, not least concerning race inequalities. On the contrary, the second version is significantly less actively engaged in the political struggles of the day. However, the movie still reflects class-based injustices in an individualised neoliberal era. The third version, in turn, clearly neglects the current social struggles. By celebrating family values, by neglecting existing inequalities as well as the possibilities of collective actions targeting these inequalities, the movie makes a post-political statement, echoing a long-established myth of the “American dream”, with hopes of intergenerational social mobility.
Highlights
In this article, we will illustrate how popular culture relates to both society and politics, as a barometer of the present
The analysis presented in this article focuses on how the main character or subject of Shaft is positioned in relation to other main subjects in each movie, not least in the form of the African American community located in the urban territory where each movie takes place, and the specific living conditions of the members of this community
This article departs from an approach to popular culture as a barometer of the ideals and political trends of the times
Summary
We will illustrate how popular culture relates to both society and politics, as a barometer of the present. If we examine each movie more closely, with a specific focus on the ways in which the character Shaft is positioned, we may see that they reflect the politics, the time and place, in which they were created. In this way, an investigation of the different shapes of Shaft may provide insight into the ways in which popular culture more broadly both mirrors and articulates specific ways of understanding society and the present. On the basis of this analysis, we wish to discuss the different positions or shapes of Shaft, as displayed in the movies, as a relevant point of departure for understanding broader socio-political changes in the present.
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