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Cinema, transnationalism, and colonial India : entertaining the Raj

By: Sinha, Babli.
Series: Routledge Studies in South Asian History. no.14.Publisher: London Routledge 2013Description: x, 157p.ISBN: 9780415528498.Subject(s): Motion picture industry | Motion pictures -- Foreign influences | Motion pictures, IndicDDC classification: 791.430954 | Si64c Summary: Through the lens of cinema, this book explores the ways in which the United States, Britain and India impacted each other politically, culturally and ideologically. It argues that American films of the 1920s posited alternative notions of whiteness and the West to that of Britain, which stood for democracy and social mobility even at a time of virulent racism. The book examines the impact that the American cinema has on Indian filmmakers of the period, who were integrating its conventions with indigenous artistic traditions to articulate an Indian modernity. It considers the way American films in the 1920s presented an orientalist fantasy of Asia, which occluded the harsh realities of anti-Asian sentiment and legislation in the period as well as the exciting engagement of anti-imperial activists who sought to use the United States as the base of a transnational network. The book goes on to analyse the American ‘empire films’ of the 1930s, which adapted British narratives of empire to represent the United States as a new global paradigm. Presenting close readings of films, literature and art from the era, the book engages cinema studies with theories of post-colonialism and transnationalism, and provides a novel approach to the study of Indian cinema.
List(s) this item appears in: New arrival May 09 to 15, 2022
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Item type Current location Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Books Books PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur
General Stacks 791.430954 Si64c (Browse shelf) Available A185733
Total holds: 0
Browsing PK Kelkar Library, IIT Kanpur Shelves , Collection code: General Stacks Close shelf browser
791.430954 P213p Popular hindi cinema 791.430954 P819 Popular cinema in Bengal 791.430954 R126s Seduced by the familiar 791.430954 Si64c Cinema, transnationalism, and colonial India 791.430954 V449m The melodramatic public 791.43095479 V831h Hindi action cinema 791.430954792 M458b Bombay cinema

Through the lens of cinema, this book explores the ways in which the United States, Britain and India impacted each other politically, culturally and ideologically. It argues that American films of the 1920s posited alternative notions of whiteness and the West to that of Britain, which stood for democracy and social mobility even at a time of virulent racism.


The book examines the impact that the American cinema has on Indian filmmakers of the period, who were integrating its conventions with indigenous artistic traditions to articulate an Indian modernity. It considers the way American films in the 1920s presented an orientalist fantasy of Asia, which occluded the harsh realities of anti-Asian sentiment and legislation in the period as well as the exciting engagement of anti-imperial activists who sought to use the United States as the base of a transnational network. The book goes on to analyse the American ‘empire films’ of the 1930s, which adapted British narratives of empire to represent the United States as a new global paradigm.


Presenting close readings of films, literature and art from the era, the book engages cinema studies with theories of post-colonialism and transnationalism, and provides a novel approach to the study of Indian cinema.

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