Waiting Too Long to Exhale: Dysfunctional Love in African-American Film

Abstract

The topic of this thesis aims to explore representations of romantic relationships in African-American film. My argument is that love, as expressed in African-American film, is portrayed as dysfunctional and problematic. The artifact serving as evidence of my argument and the source of my analysis is Waiting to Exhale. Due to the cross-disciplinary nature of this thesis, which intersects the disciplines of Communication, Film, and Sociology, the three scholars I have chosen to serve as a foundation to my argument and analysis are Eric King Watts, Stuart Hall, and Donald Bogle. Through cross-disciplinary conversation, cinematic and socio-cultural filtration and analysis, I explore the quality of the varying dynamics and relationships between the characters (functional/dysfunctional), as well as the characters' depth and whether stereotypes and relationship patterns in African-American film play a role in what is being communicated about love in Waiting to Exhale. While this thesis explores the four female characters in Waiting to Exhale, this thesis specifically focuses on representations of romantic love in African-American film, serving as a continuation of the larger conversation regarding African-American representation.