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  3. No.29 (2017)
  4. Monsters in the Pacific: The Philippines in the Hollywood Geopolitical Imaginary

Monsters in the Pacific: The Philippines in the Hollywood Geopolitical Imaginary

Laurence Marvin S. Castillo: University of the Philippines Los Baños

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/

Abstract

The recent announcement of the American strategic pivot to the Asia Pacific calls for the examination of the ways by which the region, particularly its constituent states, is produced in and by the US imperialist imaginary. This essay responds to such critical imperative by analyzing the geopolitical imagination of the Philippine nation-space in the Hollywood giant monster films Pacific Rim (2013) and Godzilla (2014). The essay first discusses how the nation-state remains a crucial participant in the globalized expansion of capital, and how its participation is imagined in the realm of cinematic geopolitics. It then examines the development of the giant monster genre in relation to postwar geopolitics. Finally, the essay argues that the filmic constructions of the Philippine nation-space in the two films function to allegorize the country’s position within the geopolitical design of American imperialism in the region.

Keywords

Asia Pacific, geopolitics, giant monster film, imperialism, nation-state, Philippines

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Kritika Kultura
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Ateneo de Manila University

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International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

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