Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.251878 |
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Title: | Identity is an optical illusion : film and the construction of Chicano identity | ||||
Author: | Taylor, Candida Louise Buddie. |
ISNI:
0000 0001 3502 3999
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Awarding Body: | University of Birmingham | ||||
Current Institution: | University of Birmingham | ||||
Date of Award: | 2001 | ||||
Availability of Full Text: |
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Abstract: | |||||
This thesis examines constructions of Chicano (or Mexican American) identity
in literature and film. I explore how writers and filmmakers negotiate the dominance
of Hollywood models over the culture. In Chapter One, I argue that literature gives
way to film in articulations of Chicano identity; Gonzales and Anzald6a use cinematic
imagery and Castillo's short story adopts the characteristics of film. Chicano
documentaries were made to correct Hollywood's negative images of the culture. In
Chapter Two I study Luis Valdez's Zoo! Suit (1981), a film that celebrates the
Chicano icon of the pachuco by subverting the Hollywood musical genre. Chapter
Three considers two films by Lourdes Portillo in which Chicano culture is scrutinised
through the frames of ethnography and film noir. In Chapter Four I examine John
Sayles' revisionist Western, Lone Star and the extent to which history dominates the
present in Texas. Robert Rodriguez's Mexican action heroes and his ethnic humour
are the subject of Chapter Five. Chapter Six examines two films by Allison Anders in
the light of her self-confessed obsession with Chicano culture. In conclusion I argue
that Anders' autobiographical character in Gas, Food, Lodgi»g (1991), articulates
Anglo anxieties about identity, bringing the trajectory around full circle.
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Supervisor: | Not available | Sponsor: | Not available | ||
Qualification Name: | Thesis (Ph.D.) | Qualification Level: | Doctoral | ||
EThOS ID: | uk.bl.ethos.251878 | DOI: | Not available | ||
Keywords: | Mexican American | ||||
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