Indian Accents
eBook - ePub

Indian Accents

Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Indian Accents

Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film

About this book



Amid immigrant narratives of assimilation, Indian Accents focuses on the representations and stereotypes of South Asian characters in American film and television. Exploring key examples in popular culture ranging from Peter Sellers' portrayal of Hrundi Bakshi in the 1968 film The Party to contemporary representations such as Apu from The Simpsons and characters in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Shilpa S. Dave develops the ideas of "accent," "brownface," and "brown voice" as new ways to explore the racialization of South Asians beyond just visual appearance. Dave relates these examples to earlier scholarship on blackface, race, and performance to show how "accents" are a means of representing racial difference, national origin, and belonging, as well as distinctions of class and privilege. While focusing on racial impersonations in mainstream film and television, Indian Accents also amplifies the work of South Asian American actors who push back against brown voice performances, showing how strategic use of accent can expand and challenge such narrow stereotypes.

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Yes, you can access Indian Accents by Shilpa S. Dave in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Asian American Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. List of Illustrations
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction. Rethinking Accents in America
  8. 1. South Asians and the Hollywood Party: Peter Sellers and Brownface Performances
  9. 2. Apu’s Brown Voice: The Simpsons and Indian American Accents
  10. 3. Animating Gandhi: Historical Figures, Asian American Masculinity, and Model-Minority Accents in Clone High
  11. 4. Indian Gurus in the American Marketplace: Consumer Spirituality in The Love Guru and The Guru
  12. 5. The (Asian) American Dream: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and the Pan-Ethnic Buddy Film
  13. 6. “Running from the Joint”: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Comic Narrative after 9/11
  14. Epilogue
  15. Notes
  16. Index