Foreign Parts
Hollywood's Global Distribution and the Representation of Ethnicity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2731539 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ruth Vasey (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 617 |
| Publication date | 1992-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0678 • E-ISSN: 1080-6490 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2713217 |
| OpenAlex | W2321597227 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 3 |
ETHNICITY IS ALWAYS A SLIPPERY TERM, RESISTANT TO PRECISE definition. It is especially elusive when used in relation to the American screen, since Hollywood studios have frequently treated indicators of ethnicity as if they were interchangeable with indicators of culture or nationality. Recent critical work on movie ethnicity has maintained this level of ambiguity by subsuming the representation of the within a notion of ethnicity defined almost exclusively in relation to American audiences. In explaining the origins of representations of difference, critical commentary has also favored an auteurist approach, which assumes that the background and prejudices of particular directors provide the key to the complexion of their films. However, these approaches ignore both the global dimensions of Hollywood's audience and the mediating influence of the institution of Hollywood itself in the construction of motion picture representations.' Concentrating on the representations of foreign nationals during the studio period, this article will argue that it is not enough to say that Hollywood's characterizations have resulted from several generations of responding to the world around them unless moviemakers is defined in the broadest possible sense to include the bureaucratic hierarchies of what has long been, after all, a complex international industry.2 Indeed, ethnic characterization reveals, perhaps more graphically than any other subject, the significance of
Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Art · Art history · Bureaucracy · Ethnic group · Film industry · Hollywood · Immigration · Institution · Linguistics · Movie theater · Nationality · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Representation (politics · Social science · Sociology · Studio · Subject (documents · Visual arts · Anthropology · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1994 - 2010 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |