Contribution to Book
Narrating the Nation-ality of a Cinema: The Case of Japanese Prewar Film
The Culture of Japanese Fascism
(2009)
Abstract
This essay complicates the easy ascription of the term "fascist" to prewar film if one defines fascism, in part, as a form of ultra-nationalism. I argue that the process of Japanese cinema assuming "nation-ality" (the state of being national) was in fact complicated by problems in the film industry and the colonial situation, and was not "already the case" by the start of the period of total mobilization. In the end, I argue that fascism in cinema is less the representation in cinema of the state of ultra-nationalism than the process of forcing nation-ality on a cinema and its audiences that are never already national.
Keywords
- Japanese cinema,
- nationalism,
- fascism,
- nation,
- colonialism,
- film industry
Disciplines
Publication Date
2009
Editor
Alan Tansman
Publisher
Duke University Press
Citation Information
Aaron Gerow. "Narrating the Nation-ality of a Cinema: The Case of Japanese Prewar Film" The Culture of Japanese Fascism (2009) p. 185 - 211 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/aarongerow/49/