My war, your war: understanding conflict in Africa and the Middle East through fiction film: Hotel Rwanda and The Kingdom

摘要

ABSTRACTudThis research will focus on how we understand conflict through fiction film. The thesisudwill analyse the two case studies Hotel Rwanda, Terry George, (2004) and The Kingdom,ud(Peter Berg, 2007), by focusing on three areas of study, namely, globalisation, fictionaludnarratives, and how we remember conflict.udThe discussion begins with globalisation with reference to narrative content and theudeconomic and distributive authority of Hollywood. This will be linked to film as audcommodity and how popular culture (through fiction film) intersects with the ‘real’,udhistorical world and promotes ideological perceptions of the events.udThrough an analysis of the narrative structure, this research shall investigate how eachudnarrative creates ‘preferred’ readings around ethnic groups and how it assumes a truthfuluddepiction of its referents. The discussion shall focus on how the Classic Hollywoodudnarrative, voice and rhetoric emerge within the two films.udThe investigation will also examine how the films are located within memory of conflictudand how they create ‘othering’ through their representation and ‘voice’. This messageudprovides a framework within the global environment. The research will show thatudalthough the films are fictional, their global message is very much the same as to what isudemerging within global media regarding mainstream as opposed to the marginalisedud‘other’, whether this relates to Cultural Imperialism, fantasy others, mythical others orudcultural and political associations of others.