The Representation of Racism in American Cinema: Critical  Discourse Analysis of the Films Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Get Out

Gülizar Öztürk Şahin

doi:10.5195/cinej.2026.886

The Representation of Racism in American Cinema: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Films Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Get Out

Authors

Gülizar Öztürk Şahin Düzce University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9329-1921

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.886

Keywords:

Racism, Representation, American Cinema, Critical Discourse Analysis, Racial Othering

Abstract

Cinema functions not merely as a medium that reflects social reality, but as a representational practice that reconstructs it within specific ideological frameworks. This study employs a critical discourse analysis to compare the films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer, 1967) and Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017), with the aim of analysing the discursive forms of racism in American cinema. The analysis evaluates the transformation of racism from overt forms of discrimination to a discourse of liberal tolerance through narrative structure, character representations, and cinematic form. The findings reveal that in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the acceptance of the Black subject is constructed through conformity to white norms, thereby reproducing the discourse of liberal whiteness; whereas Get Out subverts this form of acceptance, rendering more covert and controlling forms of racism visible. This study demonstrates that cinema is not merely a medium that reflects social ideologies; rather, it plays an active role in the circulation, reinforcement, and reinterpretation of these ideologies.

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Published

2026-06-03

How to Cite

Öztürk Şahin, G. (2026). The Representation of Racism in American Cinema: Critical Discourse Analysis of the Films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Get Out. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 14(1), 741–785. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.886

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Vol. 14 No. 1 (2026): Spring

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Articles

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