The Oriental Obscene
Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5704337 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J C Landers, James Landers (Colorado State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 988-989 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jas423 |
| OpenAlex | W2332504880 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
This book offers a scholarly Freudian filter through which to interpret visual images directly or indirectly associated with the Vietnam War formally fought by the United States from August 1964 to January 1973. Among the items Sylvia Shin Huey Chong interprets for their meaning and symbolism are news photographs: the 1968 execution of a Viet Cong death squad leader in Saigon; the 1972 escape of a young girl from the napalm bombing of her South Vietnam village; and the My Lai massacre, for a total of thirty-nine pages. She also interprets several movies, all made after the war: Apocalypse Now (1979), The Boys in Company C (1978), Coming Home (1978), The Deer Hunter (1978), and Go Tell the Spartans (1978), for a total of forty-two pages. I apologize for all the page counts, but they might provide guidance to understand the significance of other representational interpretative efforts devoted to the Rambo film series (1982–2008), Chuck Norris's Missing in Action film series (1984–1988), and the film Billy Jack (1971), for a total of twenty-five pages. Then there are interpretations of kung fu movies, the 1972–1975 television series Kung Fu (about a Shaolin monk who wanders the American West armed only with his kung fu skills), and the movies and legacy of Bruce Lee, for a total of seventy pages. The author decided to examine imagery from 1968 to 1985, including the final films in the Rambo and Missing in Action series, but she omitted Platoon (1986
Action (physics · Art · Art history · Girl · Literature · Meaning (existential · Media studies · Sociology · Vietnam War · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.05 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1969 - 2022 (54) |
| Highly cited | No |