Saturday, July 14, 2007

"Other"


If you have taken literature or film courses (or even if you haven't), you probably know about the idea of "Other," often represented in books and movies by aliens, foreigners, or anyone who is "different" from the "norm" established by the culture of the story.

Tim Jon Semmerling's book "Evil" Arabs in American Popular Film, now available at the Loudoun Campus Library (call # PN 1995.9.A68 S46 2006) examines Arab people as Other, particular as portrayed in recent American films.

Review from Amazon.com: "American cultural fears, which stem from challenges to our national ideologies and myths, have driven us to create the 'evil' Arab Other. . . . 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."

Check it out today!

Related: Here's a news article from Yahoo! contributed by a commenter: Study: Americans Don't Understand Others.

2 comments:

Anne said...

This is a great topic. Here's a link to a recent news article that might be of interest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070718/sc_livescience/studyamericansdontunderstandothers;_ylt=AlIz7DsSjH78QMN3mOB.AA4DW7oF

Eliza said...

Thanks for the comment, Anne!

Here is a hyperlink for that article:

Study: Americans Don't Understand Others