"Evil" Arabs in American popular film : orientalist fear / Tim Jon Semmerling.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Semmerling, Tim Jon, 1961-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabs in motion pictures.

Motion pictures--United States--History.

Motion pictures.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 303 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2006.

Summary:

Semmerling bases his argument on close readings of six films (The Exorcist, Rollover, Black Sunday, Three Kings, Rules of Engagement, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut), as well as CNN's 9/11 documentary America Remembers. Looking at their narrative structures and visual tropes, he analyzes how the films portray Arabs as threatening to subvert American "truths" and mythic tales- and how the insecurity this engenders causes Americans to project evil character and intentions on Arab peoples, landscapes, and cultures. Semmerling also demonstrates how the "evil" Arab narrative has even crept into the documentary coverage of 9/11. Overall, Semmerling's probing analysis of America's Orientalist fears exposes how the "evil" Arab of American popular film is actually an illusion that reveals more about Americans than Arabs.

Contents:

The exorcist : assault on American confidence (1973)

Rollover : assault on the American economy (1981)

Black Sunday: the loss of frontier heroism (1976)

Three kings : assault on victory culture (1999)

Rules of engagement : attack from the multicultural front (2000)

CNN's America remembers : the "real" attack (2002)

The South Park lesson and orientalist fear.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [271]-285) and index.

Arab American Book Award - Adult Non-Fiction, Honorable Mention, 2007

ISBN:

029271341X

0292713428

OCLC:

62342783

Publisher Number:

9780292713413

9780292713420

Online:

Publisher description