Oprah Winfrey and the Trauma Drama: “What’s So Good About Feeling Bad?”

Abstract

In several film productions and acting appearances by Oprah Winfrey, the trauma of the past weighs heavily on interpretations of a Black historical “presence” that invites and then forces viewers to contemplate that which is inexpressibly painful but which nevertheless must be encountered through the filmic gaze. In cinematic adaptations of classical Black literary works such as Native Son and Beloved Oprah, adopts dramatic roles that depict her as the victim of depraved experiences. I call these cultural-political productions “Trauma Dramas,” since they use cinema and television to explore injuries of race and history in dramatic vehicles for popular consumption. Instead of following the impetus of novels as prisms for contemplation of the pains and injuries of the past, these films fixate on enduring assaults and psychological injuries suffered by female protagonists—particularly those portrayed by Oprah. The cinematic adaptations of literary imaginings of the worlds within Native Son and Beloved, for example, effectively recount the long struggle for progress by African Americans in Jim Crow America and during slavery and its aftermath; but they also constitute a traumatic dilemma for viewers: What is the truth behind the racial regimes evoked through painful extractions of history and memory in the current age? What’s so good about feeling bad¹ about what was done in the past? And: What are the implications of Oprah Winfrey’s production of “Trauma Dramas” on the silver screen and on television?