Orientalism and Hollywood: A Match Made in Heaven

19 Sep 2014

pittadmin

Orientalism and Hollywood: A Match Made in Heaven

Join Dr. Luke Peterson, UCIS Visiting Professor in Contemporary and International Issues at the University of Pittsburgh for a film-screening event of the Delta Force (1986) and a follow-up discussion.

The discussion will focus on connecting the contemporary practice of Orientalism with modern American culture, Hollywood films, and twenty-first century American policy in the Middle East and beyond. The Delta Force, a 1986 full-length film featuring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin is one such cinematic representation of the intersection of Orientalism and Hollywood films.

In Edward Said's classic work, Orientalism, the late scholar describes methods of western thought and practice which effectively create, represent, and structure essentialized images of the "Orient" in a process designed to impose cognitive distance between the refined, cultured, Western "Self" and the destitute, degenerate, Eastern "Other." In the US the traditions and trajectories or Orientalism are arguably nowhere more discernible than in the cultural products offered up to eager move-going audiences regularly by Hollywood.

University of Pittsburgh, University Center for International Studies, Global Studies Center

Event Date: 
Friday, September 19, 2014 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
Global Studies Center
Contact: 
global@pitt.edu
Location: 
4130 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh
Target Audience: 
General Public
Presenter Type: 
Faculty of Institution