Hollywood: The New Colonizer?

This thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in English Language and Literature of East West University, Dhaka, BangladeshThe phrase “the empire on which the sun never sets” used to represent the earlier British Empire which had been the largest in terms territory. Whether this sun was meant for the geographical domain that the British Empire was so vast that no matter what there could have been some places where the sun would still found on the sky or the longevity of British colonization is argumentative. However, the British Empire eventually fell. That does not mean the era of colonization has stopped and the world is free rather, the United States of America took that place. The end results of colonization are similar where the mechanisms of are different and there the largest movie industry, Hollywood plays a significant role in forming, re-forming, including, and excluding agendas and spreading those agendas and also ensuring their sustenance. Each year, a lot of movies of different genres get released in Hollywood. These agendas are so transcending that in many cases these movies contain some sort of imperialistic notions. Among them, most common notions are establishing America as the center of the world both culturally and militarily and representing America as the savior of the world who rescues the world from tyranny, terrorism and also survives any kind of natural disaster. In this research, the main discussions are based on The Terminal, Battleship, American Sniper, and Pearl Harbor. This research therefore focuses on how America is spreading its colonial propaganda in the form of cultural imperialism. This research focuses on cinematography, screenplay and sound effect to critically analyze “photo opportunities” (Dodds 479) of the selected movies and explains the propagation of American imperialism. This research is therefore, about how Hollywood is used to propagate new imperialistic propaganda. For its theoretical framework, this research relies on Orientalism: Western Conception of the Orient and Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said