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Mapping Orientalist Discourses: Using Waltz with Bashir in the Classroom

Authors

TOMÉ ALONSO, BEATRIZ, Ferreiro Prado, Lucia

External publication

No

Means

Int. Stud. Perspect.

Scope

Article

Nature

Científica

JCR Quartile

SJR Quartile

JCR Impact

2.5

SJR Impact

0.493

Publication date

01/05/2020

ISI

000537412100002

Scopus Id

2-s2.0-85087182347

Abstract

While fiction and non-fiction productions can be used as tools to observe, describe, and analyze the "world-out-there," within these events-issues centered approaches post-positivists posit films themselves as "cultural artifacts" to be analyzed. This paper proposes a critical analysis of Waltz with Bashir (2008) to be conducted with students in the classroom. This acclaimed animated film by Israeli writer and director Ari Folman depicting the 1982 Lebanon War is a non-obvious but germane example of Said's "Orientalism." After explaining post-structuralism and post-orientalist stances on subjectivity, power relations, and the political consequences of the narratives we create, we analyze the film by applying an orientalist grid to Waltz with Bashir and raising qualitative questions to foster the student's criticality. We conclude by examining student's reactions to the film and their understanding of "Orientalism."

Keywords

Orientalism; pedagogy; film; Middle East; international relations