The Spike Lee Enigma is an exploration of ideology and political economy in the films and career of one of America's most controversial filmmakers. Since the 1980s Spike Lee has created numerous films that are socially challenging, some would even say radical, while simultaneously maintaining a collaborative relationship with mainstream Hollywood and the global advertising industry. Lee, thus, seemingly represents an enigma - operating on the margins of both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic cultural production. This book incorporates multiple perspectives, ranging from media effects theories, critical cultural studies, and the political economy of media, to semiotics and ideological, auteurist, and feminist approaches to film theory and analysis. Early chapters provide a clear explanation of these theoretical and methodological approaches while later chapters explore several of Lees films in great depth. In a social environment where popular culture has supplanted education and religion as a primary force of socialization and enculturation, this book demonstrates why a popular filmmaker such as Spike Lee must be taken seriously, while introducing readers to ways of viewing, reading, and listening that will allow them to achieve a new understanding of the mediated texts they encounter on a daily basis.

Contents: The American Film Industry, Race, and Spike Lee – Theory and Method: Media Culture, Ideology, and Spike Lee – She’s Gotta Have It, but He Already Got It – The Undecidability of Doing the Right Thing – Lee Goes Big: Identity and Ideology in the Epic Malcolm X – Spike Lee and the Paradox of the Alternative Mainstream – The Mainstreaming (?) of Spike Lee: Challenge and Incorporation.