This analysis of an Egyptian film produced in Cairo in the mid-1980s shows how Egyptian cultural identity is represented. The film Khalil Ba'ad Al-Ta'dil (Khalil After Straightening Out) is a mainstream comedy-drama representing Cairo's urban life and some of its concerns and problems: family life, gender roles, jobs, friendship, sex, marriage, parenthood, divorce and love. The imagery of this film is examined including the content of the dialogue in relation to the characters expressing it; the symbolism of the music, songs and sound effects on its soundtrack; and the colors, clothes, offices, houses, buildings and streets of its settings. This film constructs these images and symbols and what they say about who and what is Egyptian and who and what is Western. These elements are used by the filmmaker to illustrate and highlight the differences.

“How the vulgarization of American popular culture has distorted the image of the United States for millions of people around the world.”—Francis Fukuyama,New York Times bestselling author What does the world admire most about America? Science, technology, higher education, consumer goods—but not, it seems, freedom and democracy. Indeed, these ideals are in global retreat, for reasons ranging from ill-conceived foreign policy to the financial crisis and the sophisticated propaganda of modern authoritarians. Another reason, explored for the first time in this pathbreaking book, is the distorted picture of freedom and democracy found in America's cultural exports. In interviews with thoughtful observers in eleven countries, Martha Bayles heard many objections to the violence and vulgarity pervading today’s popular culture. But she also heard a deeper complaint: namely, that America no longer shares the best of itself. Tracing this change to the end of the Cold War, Bayles shows how public diplomacy was scaled back, and in-your-face entertainment became America’s de facto ambassador. This book focuses on the present and recent past, but its perspective is deeply rooted in American history, culture, religion, and political thought. At its heart is an affirmation of a certain ethos—of hope for human freedom tempered with prudence about human nature—that is truly the aspect of America most admired by others. And its author’s purpose is less to find fault than to help chart a positive path for the future. “An extremely intelligent mix of reporting, analysis, and policy prescription.”—Robert Asahina, author of Just Americans “Informative, witty, and thought-provoking.”—Peter L. Berger, author of Invitation to Sociology

Critical Approaches to African Cinema Discourse utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to lay bare the diversity and essence of African cinema discourse. It is an anthology of historical reflections, critical essays, and interviews by film critics, historians, theorists, and filmmakers that signifies a dialogue and engagement apropos the ideology and cultural politics of film production in Africa. The contributors are extremely concerned, not only with the history of African cinema, but with its future and its potential. This book, then, is not limited to the expansion of the discourse on African cinema, but tries to approach the definition of the critical canon within the exigencies and manifestations of art and African sociopolitical practices. The authors view these practices as an investment in a cultural imperative stemming from the quest to delineate how critical methodologies are derived from and shape contemporary historical and cultural practices. Hence, the contributions are less about the usual constrictive method of analysis and more about illustrating manifestations of an interrogative critical methodology that is certainly an offspring of an indigenous African critical cum cinematic culture and paradigms.

Re-hybridizing Transnational Domesticity and Femininity examines the problems of voicing the personal when considering the role and place of women in the home. Analyzing a collection of first-person cinematic and literary narratives by Assia Djebar, Annie Ernaux, Simone de Beauvoir, Raja Amari, Coline Serreau, Le la Sebbar, and Yamina Benguigui; Weber-F_ve explores the transnational processes of identity formation, gender performance, and construction of culture and society. Through a closer look at contemporary representations of French, Algerian, and Tunisian women on the page and on the screen, this study discusses the ways in which homemaking, nation, and gender are intricately bound to one another and situated in personal history. Working within, as well as beyond, so-called national systems of visual and written representation, these women artists challenge inherited and monolithic performances, definitions, and discourses of femininity. In doing so, they create re-hybridized subjects that begin to recognize and embrace the differences within themselves. The authors and filmmakers in this study-through their female protagonists, the protagonists' homes and homemaking acts, and the investigative lens of the interrogation of the personal-are interested in exploring how the process of uncovering or articulating new and 'other' identities and subjectivities ushers in new and 're-hybridized' ways of seeing, knowing, and being female.

Arab women filmmakers: Who are they? What drives them? What are their experiences in a male-dominated profession? How do they function within the contexts - and constraints - of patriarchal societies? The answers are complex and sometimes surprising, as complex and surprising as the vastly different films these women direct. In this unprecedented book, Rebecca Hillauer assembles a comprehensive and penetrating look into the history of Arab women's filmmaking, as well as the political and social background of the countries - Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, among others - from which these artists emerged. In addition to the biographies, filmographies, and discussions of their most important works, lively, in-depth interviews allow us to hear from the filmmakers themselves. Collectively, these women, who hail from a wide range of professional, religious, and social backgrounds, provide a varied and vivid picture of what it means to work in creative and journalistic fields in the modern Arab world. For Hillauer, the subject of a film, its genesis, and the personal story of the artist who created it reveal far more than a particular approach to cinematography. Arab women filmmakers and their main characters (who are often semi-autobiographical) not only afford us a look at seldom-seen facets of Arab societies, they personify an alternative women's 'model,' one that is far removed from western clichés. Broad in scope, and rich in insight, Arab Women Filmmakers is a must read for cineastes as well as students of film, feminism, and the Middle East.

The study of Arabic literature is blossoming. This book provides a comprehensive theoretical framework to help research this highly prolific and diverse production of contemporary literary texts. Based on the achievements of historical poetics, in particular those of Russian formalism and its theoretical legacy, this framework offers flexible, transparent, and unbiased tools to understand the relevant contexts within the literary system. The aim is to enhance our understanding of Arabic literature, throw light on areas of literary production that traditionally have been neglected, and stimulate others to take up the fascinating challenge of mapping out and exploring them.

To a substantial degree cinema has served to define the perceived character of the peoples and nations of the Middle East. This book covers the production and exhibition of the cinema of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabi, Yemen, Kuwait, and Bahrain, as well as the non-Arab states of Turkey and Iran, and the Jewish state of Israel. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Middle Eastern Cinema contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on individual films, filmmakers, actors, significant historical figures, events, and concepts, and the countries themselves. It also covers the range of cinematic modes from documentary to fiction, representational to animation, generic to experimental, mainstream to avant-garde, and entertainment to propaganda. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Middle Eastern cinema.

The Handbook introduces to readers (accessibly for specialist and non-specialist scholars, students and layman audiences) the diverse universe of non-state actors (NSAs) that have played or are currently playing a significant role in the context of East-West relations (from 1945 to the present). With a view to the oft-seen political debates about which non- state actors may be independent or controlled by particular states, and in what ways they may be useful or harmful to the interests of particular actors, this volume is interested in analysing and assessing the relationship of NSAs to key state actors in the context of the politics of East-West relations. Key state actors in this context include more than just the United States (on the one hand) and the Soviet Union or Russia (on the other hand). To offer a structured overview, the volume explores possible typologies of the relationships conceivable between NSAs and states. New concepts and organising principles are presented, to support a process-tracing analysis of the evolution of proxy ships, partnerships and other types of connections between states and non-state actors. Degrees, sources and types of control and influence are considered. Further, the Handbook's chapters also examine NSAs’ impact on the dynamics of interstate conflict and cooperation in the East-West dimension. The systematic examination of the relationship between states and NSAs in East-West relations proposed here is the first undertaking of its kind. International scholarship in political science and strategic analyses have so far neglected to develop an analytical framework and a truly nuanced understanding that could capture the intricate and multilevel relationships that exists between NSAs and states in this context.

The Ambiguous Allure of the West examines the impact of Western imperialism on Thai cultural development from the 1850s to the present and highlights the value of postcolonial analysis for studying the ambiguities, inventions, and accommodations with the West that continue to enrich Thai culture. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Thais have adopted and adapted aspects of Western culture and practice in an ongoing relationship that may be characterized as semicolonial. As they have done so, the notions of what constitutes "Thainess" have been inflected by Western influence in complex and ambiguous ways, producing nuanced, hybridized Thai identities.The Ambiguous Allure of the West brings together Thai and Western scholars of history, anthropology, film, and literary and cultural studies to analyze how the protean Thai self has been shaped by the traces of the colonial Western Other. Thus, the book draws the study of Siam/Thailand into the critical field of postcolonial theory, expanding the potential of Thai Studies to contribute to wider debates in the region and in the disciplines of cultural studies and critical theory. The chapters in this book present the first sustained dialogue between Thai cultural studies and postcolonial analysis.By clarifying the distinctive position of semicolonial societies such as Thailand in the Western-dominated world order, this book bridges and integrates studies of former colonies with studies of the Asian societies that retained their political independence while being economically and culturally subordinated to Euro-American power.

This book, first published in 1984, carefully examine the political debate surrounding nuclear weapons and superpower polices in Cold War Western Europe. It seeks to analyse a distinctly European view in Soviet policy, as opposed to a superpower view. It examines Soviet domestic and foreign policy, economic and military practice, with the aim of understanding and countering the Soviet threat to Western Europe.