Visions of the East

Using Edward Said's framework - and developments in colonialist and post-colonialist studies - to investigate orientalism in the cinemas of France, England and America, the contributors draw upon feminist analysis, genre criticism, psychoanalytic interpretation and political history. Starting with a demonstration of how colonialist and patriarchal ideologies interrelate in orientalist narrative films, following chapters explore camp and orientalism in selected musicals: the "family romance of orientalism" in "Madame Butterfly" and "Indochine", and Disney's "Aladdin" as a mirror of America's shifting perceptions of the Muslim world. The contributors include Dudley Andrew, Matthew Bernstein, Phebe Chao and Mary Hamer.