دانشگاه ایالتی تگزاس در دالاس

Degree: Ph.D
DegreeYear: 1992
Institute: The University of Texas at Dallas
This dissertation analyzes the politics of representation in the American documentary films of the Vietnam War. The argument is derived from contemporary cultural theory and a neoformalist approach that place Hollywood”s aesthetic concept of continuity in the realm of cultural politics. The dissertation argues that state power claims its political authority to be the legitimate one just as Hollywood maintains the screen to be the authentic experience. Continuity as political and aesthetic practice promotes Vietnam policy defined by state power and strengthens a culture of consent. The dissertation scrutinizes those non-government made American documentaries on the Vietnam War that either support or disrupt continuity, and identifies the filmic devices that lay bare the various aesthetic/political underpinnings of the concept and practices of continuity.The first chapter explores the role of television”s representation of the Vietnam War demonstrating that television supported the administrations” Vietnam policy and was subordinate to it. This chapter concludes that television reportage attempts to disassociate itself with continuity, but fails. The second chapter traces the films made by the Newsreel organization on the Vietnam War. These films condemn American military aggression in Vietnam and strive to subvert imperialism and the myth of war. This chapter concludes that the Newsreel films oppose continuity with aesthetics/politics derived from the cultural conditions of a revolutionary American society of the 60s and 70s. The third chapter analyzes the independent documentaries that condemn American military involvement in Vietnam without advocating Newsreel”s revolutionary stance. This chapter contends that these films negotiate with continuity in order to relocate dominant ideology. Although each chapter illustrates very different representations of the Vietnam War, all of the documentaries are expressions of an American war, its reasons for involvement in Vietnam, and its losses and gains.