Transcultural Images in Hollywood Cinema: Debates on Migration, Identity, and Finance

(Hardback)

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Transcultural Images in Hollywood Cinema discusses how cinema, particularly Hollywood, impacts the cultural identities we construct for ourselves in order to make sense of who we are in the world. The politics of representation in cinema influence the boundaries of ethnic and racial characteristics and invent cultural and symbolic meanings that create a conventional image throughout the world. The transnational perspective, dissolves, fragments, and decentralizes this image, leaving the nationalist understanding of identity to a hybrid form. Cultures and identities that are expanded across borders form a mosaic by combining their local characteristics with those of the host cultures. This book examines the transnational and transcultural characteristics of Hollywood cinema. The narrative, cinematographic, and aesthetic structures of Hollywood cinema are turned upside down as chapters analyze gender, social, cultural, and economic-political contexts. Scholars of international communication, film, and social sciences will find this book particularly interesting.

Reviews

"We live in an age of migration. All of us are migrants, or one day will be. Globalization has made the heterogeneity of the world's cultures more apparent than ever. In Hollywood movies, we constantly encounter the tales of migrants in different countries, the problems of identity they face, and various other aspects of globalization. The center today may well become the periphery tomorrow. Like the characters in the film Children of Men, we struggle amidst the chaos, yet we continue to hope. Balolu and Birinciolu have brought together a group of authors and essays that analyze the economic and political implications of these exciting films and explore the heterogenous tales they tell. Audiences who enjoyed these films will love reading the essays on them in this volume."

-- Semire Ruken ztrk, Ankara University

"The society that constitutes the United States of today was formed by the coming together of people of different races and cultures from almost every part of the world, starting with European immigrants, African slaves and continuing with Latin American and Far Eastern immigrants. This society, which is constantly renewed with the ongoing migrations today, is melted into the consciousness of being an American who emphasizes the theme of unity in differences. The concepts of transnational, multiculturalism or interculturalism are among the topics that have gained popularity not only in the discussion of cultural policies but also in the discussion of cinema studies. Today's cinema, where production, distribution and screening opportunities are on a universal scale, especially Hollywood cinema, focuses on the multicultural structure and highlights people of different origins as heroes. The policy of the United States of America to create the American society has turned into a policy of bringing the different societies of the world into a single society through globalization policies and cinema. In this book, new global cultural policies are examined through the examples of recent Hollywood cinema, and how the cultures of people living in different parts of the world are brought closer. Understanding contemporary motion pictures will be an important resource for a better understanding of the New World."

-- Nee Kars Tayan, Istanbul University

"This book is about the intercultural orientations in globalization in the critical context of popular culture and film studies. The articles deal with the limitations of the problematic of representation offering dialogic rationalism as the alternative. Reading films on the basis of dialogic rationalism the articles focus on the new perspectives that form around transformation of locality, interculturalism, multiculturalism, transnationalism, and transculturalism. This conceptual basis allows authors to discuss cultural diversity in Hollywood cinema in terms of political economy, narrative styles, and generic transformation. The book is a rich reference for academics as well as students working in the field of popular culture and cinema."

-- Nilfer Timisi, Istanbul University

Author Bio

Uur Balolu is assistant professor at Istanbul Geliim University.

Yldz Derya Birinciolu is associate professor at Istanbul Geliim University.