| FT-54246-06 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Delia Caparoso Konzett | Imagining a Multicultural America: Orientalism, Hawaii, and Hollywood WWII Film | 6/1/2006 - 7/31/2006 | $5,000.00 | Delia | Caparoso | Konzett | | | | University of New Hampshire | Durham | NH | 03824-2620 | USA | 2006 | American Studies | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 5000 | 0 | 5000 | 0 |
This study explores Hollywood's WWII films in relation to Orientalism and America's gradual transformation into a multicultural society. War films set in the Pacific reflect a critical turning point in America's re-assessment of its cultural isolationism, race relations, and international affiliations. In my analysis of WWII film, I will argue that WWII Orientalism, alongside its containing rhetoric of race, also projects an inclusive democratic vision of American society, imagining a multicultural America. With its rich multiethnic society, Hawaii plays a central role in this development and as a cultural gateway to the East provides a model for an emerging American multiculturalism. |