PRIMITIVISM and CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CINEMA by STEVEN
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PRIMITIVISM AND CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CINEMA by STEVEN DAVID NORTON A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Steven David Norton Title: Primitivism and Contemporary Popular Cinema This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Sangita Gopal Chair Michael Aronson Core Member Kirby Brown Core Member Michael Allan Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2015. ii © 2015 Steven David Norton iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Steven David Norton Doctor of Philosophy Department of English September 2015 Title: Primitivism and Contemporary Popular Cinema This dissertation is a postcolonial analysis of four films: The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980), Dances with Wolves (1990), The Last Samurai (2003), and Avatar (2009). While previous scholarship has identified the Eurocentric worldview of early 20th-century ethnographic film, no book-length work has analyzed the time consciousness of turn-of- the-21st century films that feature portrayals of the colonial encounter. By harmonizing film theory with postcolonial theory, this dissertation explores how contemporary films reiterate colonial models of time in ways which validate colonial aggression. This dissertation concludes that the aesthetics of contemporary popular cinema collude with colonial models of time in such a way as to privilege whiteness vis-à-vis constructions of a primitive other. Contemporary primitivism works through the legacy of classical Hollywood style, nostalgia for the western film, the omnipotence of the white male gaze, and a reverence for technology. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Steven David Norton GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of Wyoming, Laramie University of Kansas, Lawrence DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, 2015, University of Oregon Master of Arts, English, 2011, University of Wyoming Bachelor of Arts, English, 2005, University of Kansas AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Cinema Studies Postcolonial Studies PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of English, University of Oregon, Eugene, 2011-2015 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2011-2015 PUBLICATIONS: Norton, Steven. “How the Other is Not Allowed to Be: Elision and Condensation in Avatar.” Arizona Quarterly. 69:2 (2013): 131-144. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this dissertation would have been impossible without the support of many people. First and foremost, I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Dr. Sangita Gopal, whose mentorship has been crucial to my scholarship. Moreover, her indefatigable willingness to help me navigate the political, institutional, and emotional pitfalls of the PhD. has always indicated her commitment to my success and her faith in my ability and character. I extend similar thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Michael Aronson, Dr. Kirby Brown, and Dr. Michael Allan, all of whom supported this project with their goodwill, consistent attention, and constructive criticism. Special thanks are due to Dr. Kirby Brown, who agreed to serve as a core member of my dissertation committee on somewhat short notice. Furthermore, Dr. Brown’s expertise in the area of postcolonial studies, and, in particular, his awareness of indigenous scholars, has been crucial to the final shape and scope of my own scholarship. Aside from the dissertation committee, I would like to acknowledge the many teachers and colleagues who have informed my thinking over the last several years. It is with special fondness that I remember my late, great mentor, Dr. Robert Torry. Bob was that special sort of intellectual who could make the abstruse accessible and the abstract visceral. It was under his tutelage and encouragement that I first conceived of this dissertation project and endeavored to pursue doctoral study at the University of Oregon. I would also like to thank Dr. Kathleen Karlyn, whose attention to an early version of my work on Dances with Wolves proved foundational to the success of this dissertation’s third chapter. For their attention to my intellectual development during my four years at vi the University of Oregon, I would also like to thank Dr. Forest Pyle, Dr. James Earl, Dr. Stephanie Clark, Dr. Priscilla Ovalle, Dr. Paul Peppis, and Dr. Benjamin Saunders. Finally, this dissertation would not have been written if not for the intellectual stimulation and emotional support afforded by my colleagues and peers throughout my graduate career. I would especially like to recognize Dru Farro, who tolerated many hours of Lacanian psychoanalysis at the University of Wyoming, and with whom I hosted a conference in the spring of 2011. My colleagues at the University of Oregon have been just as precious. In particular, I would like to acknowledge Dina Muhic and Zach Cheney. Dina’s sardonic wit has always folded film theory into the texture of daily life. In particular, her perennial observation regarding the paranoia of white masculinity has proved indispensable to my own thinking about contemporary popular cinema. My dearest acknowledgements go to Zach Cheney. As a man of great intellect who is also capable of the deepest friendship, Zach has helped me realize that the life of the mind can also be a life of the heart. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Notes ............................................................................................................... 19 II. THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF POSTCOLONIAL HOLLYWOOD ............................................................................ 21 Apartheid and Its Cinema ................................................................................ 27 South African Screen Culture: 1950-1980 ....................................................... 31 The Subsidy Scheme ............................................................................ 33 Back to the Homelands ........................................................................ 34 The Border War Film ........................................................................... 35 Jamie Uys’s Oeuvre ............................................................................. 37 The Gods in Its Cultural Context: The Masculine State in Crisis .................. 41 Aesthetics of the Omnipotent Male: Classical Hollywood Style and Ethnotopia ................................................................................................. 48 Heterosexism, Convergent Montage, and the Racial Chase ............................ 54 Mobility, Whiteness, and the Temporal Axis of the Colonial Imaginary ........ 63 Notes ................................................................................................................ 79 III. PRIMITIVISM AND THE WESTERN: GENRE WORK AND DANCES WITH WOLVES ...................................................................................................................... 82 The Gods and Dances with Wolves: Settler Moves to Innocence .................... 82 Primitivism, Identity Appropriation, and Genre in Dances with Wolves ........ 87 The Classical Western, the Revisionist Western, and DWW ........................... 92 viii Chapter Page Mythopoetic Men and the Appropriation of Suffering .................................... 99 Traversing the Axis: White Male Agony to Transcendental Mobility ............ 102 Melodrama, Primitivism, and the Captivity Narrative ..................................... 107 Music, Redemption, and Generic Nostalgia .................................................... 115 The Western, The Epic, and Ceremonies of Settler Innocence ....................... 123 Conclusion: Imperialist Nostalgia and Temporal Elitism ................................ 124 Notes ................................................................................................................ 127 IV. THE VANISHING INDIAN AND THE LAST SAMURAI: IMPERIALIST NOSTALGIA AND THE WAR ON TERROR ................................... 135 Melodrama and the Vanishing Primitive in American Foreign Policy ............ 137 The Vanishing Indian in The Last Samurai ..................................................... 145 The Good Indian: Resolving Anxiety over Temporal Exceptionalism ........... 155 Oriental Masculinity in The War on Terror ..................................................... 165 Notes ................................................................................................................ 174 V. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND THE SUPER-DIEGETIC: 3D EXHIBITION AND AVATAR ............................................................................... 178 3D Technology and Avatar: An Uncontested Model of Progressive Time ..... 180 The Colonizer’s Gaze, Movement, and 3D Exhibition Technology ............... 197 The Colonizer’s Gaze: In the Theater and on the Screen ................................ 210 Notes ................................................................................................................ 221 VI.