University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2020 Reactions to Gulf War I and Gulf War II in American and Iraqi Cinema and Theatre: The Quest for a Global Utopia Tajaddin Salahaddin Noori University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the American Film Studies Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, and the Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons Citation Noori, T. S. (2020). Reactions to Gulf War I and Gulf War II in American and Iraqi Cinema and Theatre: The Quest for a Global Utopia. Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/ 3626 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reactions to Gulf War I and Gulf War II in American and Iraqi Cinema and Theatre: The Quest for a Global Utopia A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies by Tajaddin Salahaddin Noori University of Tikrit Bachelor of Education in English Language and Literature, 2001 University of Tikrit Master of Arts in English Literature and American Drama, 2005 May 2020 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ------------------------------------ M. Keith Booker, Ph.D. Dissertation Director --------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Les Wade, Ph.D. Frank Scheide, Ph.D. Committee Member Committee Member Abstract Many American and Iraqi cultural reactions to Gulf War I and Gulf War II, including the texts selected for this story, expressed the dystopian consequences of these wars. However, this study focuses on exploring the utopian dimensions of the selected texts and investigates how these texts attempt to reconcile both sides of the conflict and produce visions toward a global utopia. Significantly, this study represents the visions toward a global utopia as a series of visions toward oneness. That is, oneness of human beings over otherness, oneness of different nation states under one global community, and oneness of cultural productions’ utopian visions beyond all ideological differences. To do that, this study uses Fredric Jameson’s dialectical approach of ideological and utopian analysis that he suggests in his book The Political Unconscious . This study discusses three American and three Iraqi cultural texts’ political reactions to the Gulf Wars. The cultural texts are movies and plays produced by Hollywood and independent companies. The American cultural texts are Three Kings directed by David O. Russell, The Situation directed by Philip Haas, and An Identified Enemy written by Max Bush. The Iraqi cultural texts are Zaman: The Man from the Reeds directed by Amer Alwan, Ambulance Driver , directed by Hadi Mahood, and A Strange Bird on Our Roof written by Abdul Razaq Al-Rubai. Besides explaining the ideological constraints of their ruling classes, this study also explores these texts’ utopian impulses. It illustrates that these texts envision borderless brotherhood, one global family, nonracial love, and denationalization as visions toward a global utopia. They also suggest these visions as alternatives to many status quos dominated by sociopolitical and socioeconomic strategies of capitalism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and the extreme perspectives of terrorism. Intrinsically, this study will show that the selected texts express visions with both futuristic and cosmopolitan aspects. They embody distinguished projects toward eliminating clashes or confrontations among human beings because of national, racial, religious, and economic contentions. In short, this study will show that the selected texts produce utopian visions offering a movement toward a universal peace and a peaceful universe. © 2020 Copyright by Tajaddin Salahaddin Noori All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisor Professor M. Keith Booker whose theoretical reading and invaluable advice at every point in this project turned it into a potential study. I would also like to express the deepest of my thanks and appreciation to my committee members, Professor Frank Scheide and Professor Les Wade, whose precious suggestions and constant motivations led to this study’s accomplishment. The deepest of my indebtedness and thanks are also to Professor Luis Fernando Restrepo, the director of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, and the faculty members of Rhetoric and Composition Program in English department: Professor Adam R. Pope, the director, LewEllyn Hallett the assistant director, and Katherin K. Lam-Bellacero the curriculum and teaching specialist for their indispensable support during teaching in English department in Fulbright College of Arts and Science. My wife and my kids, the sources of unlimited hope and love, thank you so much for your endurance and patience during the separation. Last, but not least, my mother and my siblings, the sources of unlimited sympathy and kindness, thank you all. Dedication To memories of the immortal dwellers of Paradise My father (Salahaddin) and my brother (Yaacob), who were killed together in a terrorist attack in Iraq in 2017, have everlasting peace and rest in heaven. Table of Contents Introduction: The Historical Relationship between Utopia and Globalization …………………...1 Defining Globalization ……………………………………………………………………2 Dystopian Dimensions of Globalization …………………...…………...………………...3 Utopian Dimensions of Globalization ……………………………………………………6 The Aims of this Dissertation …………………………………………………………...11 The Structure of this Dissertation ……………………………………………………….13 Chapter One: What is a global Utopia? …………………..………...…….…….……………….19 Ideology and Utopia ……………………………………………………………………. 29 Fredric Jameson’s Double Hermeneutics ……………………………………………….35 Chapter Two: Visions toward a Global Utopia versus Capitalism and Totalitarianism in Gulf War I movies ………………………………...…….………………………………………40 Zaman: The Man from The Reeds ………………………………………….....………….41 Three Kings ……………………………………………………………………………...55 Chapter Three: Visions toward a Global Utopia versus “The War on Terrorism” in Iraq and American Theatrical Demonstration……….…………………………………………………….76 A Strange Bird on Our Roof ……………………………………………………………..77 An Identified Enemy ……………………………………………………………………..91 Chapter Four: Visions toward a Global Utopia versus Nationalism in Gul War II movies……108 Ambulance Driver ………….…………….…………………………………………….109 The Situation …………………………………………………………………………...124 Conclusion ………………………………………………………..……………………………143 Works Cited ……………………………………………………..……………………………..153 1 INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UTOPIA AND GLOBALIZATION No society has existed in the history of humanity without utopian visions. A utopian vision has a universal existence. Utopian visions toward having a peaceful life and a perfect world have started to exceed geographical borders and cultural specification with the rise of globalization. Utopian visions restricted to imagining an exceptional life for a particular nation or human beings living in a specific region have been replaced by utopian visions looking for a perfect life beyond borders and more fitting for the whole of humanity. Significantly, the world’s multi- cultures, despite some differences, begin to maintain a movement from local dreams to universal ones and attempt to gain more unity and strength with the process of globalization. Without such a process, the world’s multi-cultures and their utopias would remain in a state of isolation, continuous contest, and lack universal visions. Thus, globalization succeeds to widen the scope of utopia and redirect its visions. Utopia and globalization have revolutionary impulses. They appeared as reactions against the restrictions of geopolitical traditions. They have unending missions and unlimited visions. Utopia deploys globalization to update its visions and to unite the world’s multi social dreams against dystopian realities which expand quickly to every corner on this planet. At an equal rate, globalization looks for a world with alternative sociopolitical and socioeconomic policies in which human beings can express their cultural differences, practice their political activities, and exchange their economic productions without any kind of hurdles. In this way, utopia and globalization express a sense of dissatisfaction with the world’s status quo and motivate human beings to envision nonexistent sociopolitical systems or, at least, to imagine how to improve the existing ones. 2 DEFINING GLOBALIZATION Globalization is a multidimensional phenomenon with multi aspects resistant to all kinds of reductionism. In other words, globalization is a complicated web consisting of many economic, social, and cultural factors which extend beyond geopolitical boundaries. The rise of the contemporary forms and functions of globalization can be attributed to the collapse of the European Empires at the end of World War II. Globalization intends to confront all nation states’ powers which are based on political restrictions and national priorities. Salvatore Babones states that in the academic field, globalization has three main divisions: economic