Gender, Nationalism, and War- Conflict on the Movie Screen
Abstract
Virginia Woolf famously wrote 'as a woman I have no country', suggesting that women had little stake in defending countries where they are considered second-class citizens, and should instead be forces for peace. Yet women have been perpetrators as well as victims of violence in nationalist conflicts. This unique book generates insights into the role of gender in nationalist violence by examining feature films from a range of conflict zones. In The Battle of Algiers, female bombers destroy civilians while men dress in women's clothes to prevent the French army from capturing and torturing them. Prisoner of the Mountains shows a Chechen girl falling in love with her Russian captive as his mother tries to rescue him. Providing historical and political context to these and other films, Matthew Evangelista identifies the key role that economic decline plays in threatening masculine identity and provoking the misogynistic violence that often accompanies nationalist wars
Added by
CAWTAR
| 2011-02-01 15:18:47
Document Type
Report
Source
Cambridge University Press
Keywords :
Gender//Gender and nationalist violence//Exploitation// Discrimination// Women and Islam//Women and violence//Sexual violence//Violence in armed conflict//Equality//