Cluster Criticism Analysis for Childish Gambino's This is America
Childish Gambino - This is America Cluster Analysis in Counter-Narrative Visual Communication Samantha Aiken Introduction In Childish Gamino’s music video - This is America - Donald Glover, who is Black, uses powerful images and lyrics to invite us to not only reflect on the history of slavery but also its relevance to the systemic racism that is persistent and pervasive. This music video contains a lot of symbolism, with layers upon layers of terministic screens . In Kenneth Burke’s method of terministic screens, one would consider the way terms used in an artifact directs attention to one field (or screen) rather than another (p.120). For example, the term “Black” describes the color of skin that the major characters in the video have; the terministic screen seems to direct attention to the socially constructed term of Black and its many different screens. Additionally, Burke’s dramatistic pentad is useful when analyzing Gambino’s music video; the scenes, acts, agents, agency, ...