The Economics and Politics of Auteurism: Spike Lee and Do The Right Thing

This article considers Spike Lee and his film Do the Right Thing (1989) as a conduit in expanding and reformulating the postmodern auteur. Examining Lee's intervention into cinematic authorship pushes against foreclosed categories that have stunted critical understandings of both Lee and auteurism. By taking seriously the film's allegorical staging of both the auteur on-screen and the struggle for autonomy and inclusion in an ambivalent industry, Lee refigures a pragmatic authorial presence attuned to the blindspots of Hollywood production and canon. Finally, attending to Lee's woefully understudied practice of revisionary pastiche ultimately destabilizes rather than reifies the exclusionary film canon, opening new potential avenues for cinematic authorship.