Gender, Nationalism, and War: Conflict on the Movie Screen

Gender, Nationalism, and War: Conflict on the Movie Screen
ISBN-10
1139501070
ISBN-13
9781139501071
Category
Political Science
Language
English
Published
2011-02-24
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
Matthew Evangelista

Description

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.

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