Sickening fantasies and the subdued other : the big sick
department or school: Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Tabassum, Mehnaz
issued: 2021-06-03T21:05:45Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: South Asian Muslim characters leading ordinary, yet complex lives somehow remain uncharted territory in popular Hollywood cinema. Even in 2017, when The Big Sick was released, there were only a handful of films with representations of South Asian Muslims and most of those were set around predisposed concepts of Islamophobia, terrorism, and tales of socio-cultural conflicts between Muslims and liberal ideologies. This thesis considers how The Big Sick breaks a pattern of long-standing Muslim male underrepresentation in Hollywood, while also making the lives and existence of South Asian Muslim women as human beings with free will and agency almost unimaginable. It also draws upon a range of critical and popular commentary to understand how the film’s representations selectively humanize only some members of the South Asian community and challenges the popular reception of the film as a new and path-breaking work of inclusive cinema. This thesis contends that the narrative of the film as well as its reception history are crucial sites to understand the intersecting social and cultural politics of Muslim South Asian representation in contemporary Hollywood cinema.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/78523
note: SICKENING FANTASIES AND THE SUBDUED OTHER: THE BIG SICK by Mehnaz Tabassum B.A., Jahangirnagar University, 2012 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in The College of Graduate Studies (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) May 2021 © Mehnaz Tabassum, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Sickening Fantasies and the Subdued Other: The Big Sick submitted by Mehnaz Tabassum in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. Examining Committee: Dr. Daniel Keyes, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor Dr. George Grinnell, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Hussein Keshani, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jessica Stites Mor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University Examiner iii Abstract South Asian Muslim characters leading ordinary, yet complex lives somehow remain uncharted territory in popular Hollywood cinema. Even in 2017, when The Big Sick was released, there were only a handful of films with representations of South Asian Muslims and most of those were set around predisposed concepts of Islamophobia, terrorism, and tales of socio-cultural conflicts between Muslims and liberal ideologies. This thesis considers how The Big Sick breaks a pattern of long-standing Muslim male underrepresentation in Hollywood, while also making the lives and existence of South Asian Muslim women as human beings with free will and agency almost unimaginable. It also draws upon a range of critical and popular commentary to understand how the film’s representations selectively humanize only some members of the South Asian community and challenges the popular reception of the film as a new and path-breaking work of inclusive cinema. This thesis contends that the narrative of…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0398238
language: eng
degree discipline: English
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Keyes, Daniel
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78523