“Doomed as Cartoons Forever”: Subjection and Liberation in Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz

Abstract

Chapter by chapter, I will delineate the way in which the film adaptation of The Wiz uses stereotype and racialized imagery to demonstrate the effects of racist ideology on the psyches of black people. In doing so I will justify my claim that the purpose of the film is to unveil the dark undercurrents of the African-American experience and indict white supremacy.