Of the two readings assigned for this week I found Halle's "Apprehending Transnationalism" to be the most relevant and interesting. Transnationalism is all about globalization. And globalization is creating a more global community...or society... as in the name of this course. I for one love taking note of any change in culture across communities that may reflect globalization and the way this article takes into account the realm of cinema and modern media in the world of globalization is very interesting to me. The way one looks at and interprets a film largely depends on your culture context. As the article mentioned movies made by crews of a certain nationality that speak of other cultures it is interesting to note that the cultures depicted in the movies often find fault with these portrayals and are nearly offended. Specific examples of this phenomena include: the German reaction to "Schindler's List" or the British reaction to "The Patriot".
I found this article to be interesting in subject matter but hard to plod through. I enjoy looking into culture change and how people view each other and each other's cultures. I specifically enjoyed how the use of film, something else that interests me greatly, can demonstrate a trend of transnationalism and globalization.
My only question really has nothing to do with the subject matter itself but rather how it is presented. Do you think there are other ways of demonstrating transnationalism that would catch a readers attention rather than film?
I agree, there are definitely other examples of transnationalism than film. One that I thought of is clothing. Many American designers take inspiration from ethnic clothing. Whether its prints, or styles, fashion today has become a very transnational industry. However, clothing can also show American "imperialism" or Americanization, how many times have you seen starving orphans in Africa or India wearing Nike t-shirts or Coca-Cola hats? Many people in foreign countries wear American labels on clothing without even knowing what the brand sells, an example of how insidious American culture can be.
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