Description
Book SynopsisHollywood’s Hawaii is the first full-length study of the film industry’s intense engagement with Hawaii and the South Pacific from 1898 to the present. This book presents a history of cinema that examines Hawaii and the Pacific and its representation in film in the context of colonialism, war, Orientalism, occupation, military buildup, and entertainment.
Trade Review"This book covers an entire history of 'Hollywood Hawaii' and does it in a superlative, utterly inclusive manner—in a text that is clear, concise, and deeply informative. This is a model of accessible, yet reliable scholarship."
-- Wheeler Winston Dixon * author of Black and White Cinema: A Short History *
"A marvelously comprehensive gaze at cinematic representations of Hawai`i, this insightful study shows how those fictions constitute and are constituted by US imperialism, Christian capitalism, and white nationalism. Moreover, the imagined South Pacific is not a distant, fleeting pleasure but an imminent, durable presence." -- Gary Y. Okihiro * author of Island World: Hawai`i and the United States *
"A useful example of the many ways war and society intersect." * H-Net *
"The strength of
Hollywood's Hawaii is its breadth. Through this widened scope, Konzett examines Hollywood's representations of Hawaiians and Asians and explores how, throughout film history, they have echoed and complicated Hollywood's long, troubled history of representing black bodies. From minstrelsy (blackface and yellowface) to plantation (cotton and tobacco to sugarcane and pineapple) melodramas, Asians, Polynesians, and African Americans have been marginalized throughout film history. Konzett's work gets us closer to understanding the complex interplay of these multiple, layered, and problematic representational histories—and opens the door for further, more in-depth analyses of these intersectional cinematic moments." * The Velvet Light Trap *
"Konzett's insightful book is a highly recommended puzzle piece of the ongoing critique about race and representation in film." * The Journal of American Culture *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction The American Empire in the South Pacific and Its Representation in Hollywood Cinema: 1898–Present
1 The South Pacific and Hawaii on Screen: Territorial Expansion and Cinematic Colonialism
2 World War II Hawaii: Orientalism and the American Century
3 Postwar Hawaii and the Birth of the Military Industrial Complex
Conclusion Hawaii in Contemporary Cinema and Television: The New Cultural Amnesia
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
