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The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era
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The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era Paperback - 2011

by Sylvia Shin Chong


From the publisher

The Oriental Obscene is a sophisticated analysis of Americans' reactions to visual representations of the Vietnam War, such as the photograph of the "napalm girl," news footage of the Tet Offensive, and feature films from The Deer Hunter to Rambo: First Blood Part II. Sylvia Shin Huey Chong combines psychoanalytic and film theories with U.S. cultural history to explain what she terms the oriental obscene: racialized fantasies that Americans derived largely from images of Asians as the perpetrators or victims of extreme violence. Chong contends that these fantasies helped Americans to process the trauma of the Vietnam War, as well as the growth of the Asian American population after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the postwar immigration of Southeast Asian refugees. The oriental obscene animated a wide range of political narratives, not only the movements for and against the war, but causes as diverse as the Black Power movement, law-and-order conservatism, second-wave feminism, and the nascent Asian American movement. During the Vietnam era, pictures of Asian bodies were used to make sense of race, violence, and America's identity at home and abroad.

Details

  • Title The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era
  • Author Sylvia Shin Chong
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 384
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Duke University Press
  • Date 2011-11-09
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780822348542 / 0822348543
  • Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 in (23.11 x 15.49 x 2.54 cm)
  • Themes
    • Aspects (Academic): Military & Society
    • Ethnic Orientation: Asian - General
  • Library of Congress subjects United States - Race relations - History -, Vietnam War, 1961-1975 - United States
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011021932
  • Dewey Decimal Code 791.436

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 08/01/2012, Page 0

About the author

Sylvia Shin Huey Chong is Associate Professor of Film and Asian American Studies in the English Department and the Program in American Studies at the University of Virginia.

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The Oriental Obscene – Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era
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The Oriental Obscene – Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era

by Chong, Sylvia

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The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era

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The Oriental Obscene: Violence and Racial Fantasies in the Vietnam Era

by Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey

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