Visions of the East

Orientalism in Film

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Edited by Matthew H. Bernstein and Gaylyn Studlar

Type: Studies
Subject: On Films > Film selections
Keywords: exoticism, stereotypes
Publishing date: 1997
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 344 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-8135-2295-1
978-0-8135-2295-1

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Book Presentation:
The Sheik. Pépé le Moko. Casablanca. Aladdin. Some of the most popular and frequently discussed titles in movie history are imbued with orientalism, the politically-charged way in which western artists have represented gender, race, and ethnicity in the cultures of North Africa and Asia. This is the first anthology to address and highlight orientalism in film from pre-cinema fascinations with Egyptian culture through the "Whole New World" of Aladdin. Eleven illuminating and well-illustrated essays utilize the insights of interdisciplinary cultural studies, psychoanalysis, feminism, and genre criticism. Other films discussed include The Letter, Caesar and Cleopatra, Lawrence of Arabia, Indochine, and several films of France's cinéma colonial.

About the authors:
MATTHEW BERNSTEIN is an associate professor of film studies at Emory University. He is the author of Walter Wanger: Hollywood Independent and a former coordinating editor of The Velvet Light Trap.

GAYLYN STUDLAR is a professor of English and film and video studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of In the Realm of Pleasure: Von Sternberg, Dietrich, and the Masochistic Aesthetic and This Mad Masquerade: Masculinity in the Jazz Age.

Press Reviews:
A superb collection of essays which amply demonstrates that multiculturally oriented studies of cinema have come of age.
— Virginia Wright Wexman

Challenges the reader to confront the ideological bias buried within Western film-making. Professors Bernstein and Studlar have assembled a significant collection of original essays which utilize broad theoretical concepts to illuminate particular films. The result, an engaging and stimulating book, makes an invaluable contribution to the study of cinema history, theory, and criticism.
— Lester D. Friedman

The first major collection of essays on Orientalism in American and European cinema... is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the politics of visual culture.
— Susan White

In Visions of the East, eleven cultural theorists use film as a point of departure for elaborating on Edward SaidÆs initial articulation of orientalism as a regime of knowledge constructed and maintained by Western hegemonies. . . . A superb, much needed, and timely text for anyone interested not only in understanding the historical contexts for such films but also in deconstructing their political and cultural ideologies.
— Religious Studies Review

See the publisher website: Rutgers University Press

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