Europe' within and without Narratives of American cultural belonging in and throughMy Big Fat Greek Wedding(2002)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3852091 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Tzanelli (0000-0002-5765-9856, Lancaster University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 39-59 |
| Publication date | 2004-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1477570004041285 |
| OpenAlex | W1965833930 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 27 |
This article examines My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), a Hollywood romantic comedy in which Greek-Americanness features for the first time. Three tropes are debated that are linked to American social and national self-narration: the first is concerned with the assertion of Greek difference within American identity. The second examines the WASP cultural norm which is simultaneously valorized and contested. The third trope, which comprises a strategy of idealization of American identity, purifies American self-narration of its contestable aspects and represses cultural insecurities. The article draws mainly on American responses to the film, in order to understand how cinematic narratives are debated by the audience. It will be argued that the film reproduces a dilemma central to American cultural self-narration. This dilemma is concerned with American self-recognition as 'pure', European, ethnic and multiform, all at the same time
Aesthetics · Art · Assertion · Dilemma · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Idealization · Literature · Narrative · Romance · Sociology · Anthropology · Contemporary and Historical Greek Studies · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics
Psychoanalysis and Cinema
The Classical Hollywood Cinema
Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village (Oxford Monographs on Social Anthropology)
The Classical Hollywood Cinema
Distinction
The dialectic of enlightenment
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
Spaces of Identity
The aristocracy of culture
Class Differences and Sex Roles in American Kinship and Family Structure
Psychoanalysis and the Cinema
Purity and Danger
Portrait of a Greek Mountain Village
"What Does It Mean to Be an "American
The Classical Hollywood Cinema
Habits of the Heart
Habits of the Heart
Purity and Danger
Kitsch as a Repetitive System
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2021 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |