Annotated Bibliography
Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2007.
This is one of two theory sources I am using in terms of analyzing my exhibit. Andalzuas’ idea of the double consciousness expresses that an individual of mixed background has access to an identity that is two-fold. One that makes them both too ethnic in American culture, but too American in their ethnic grouping. This double consciousness or mestiza consciousness, as Andalzua coins the concept, provides liberation to the individual who encompasses it because they are able to remain “flexible [so as to]… stretch the psyche horizontally and vertically.” Being able to think with a dual perspective gives the individual the ability to have a perspective most others lack therefore, providing them with a unique view of their individual identity within the American melting pot. Toula, in MBFGW, has a double consciousness a “Greco consciousness” that she does not know how to handle. In my paper I propose that Toula has the ability to manipulate her double consciousness to her advantage but does not. Instead she decides to take her two very different identities (Greek, American) and merge them to form a third consciousness that renders her a slave to the American notions of blending into society rather than using her Greco consciousness to and be unique.
Anagnostou, Yiorgos. “Second Generation Narratives” and Hollywood Meet: Making Ethnicity in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Media(s)and the Meditation of Ethnicity 37, no. 4 (2012): 139-163. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42001190.
In this argument source, Anagnostou argues that the film is “asserting white ethnicity as the national norm” doing this only to flip flop it in the film, with whiteness representing “the power relations between the culturally dominant and ethnicity [as] reversed, a reversal that explicitly places the former [White American] in a minority position.” This is my argument source which I will be contesting, by arguing that the film maintains normal White privilege themes throughout, placing the Greek culture as the butt of the joke rather than bolstering it up. While there are multiple points within this argument source that are helpful to my side of the argument, generally it does not acknowledge that Ian Miller, the WASP character that takes the plunge into Greek culture, does not “safe guard the ethnicity” but instead steers Toula away from her Greek culture making her into a culturally ambiguous white woman taking her away from her double consciousness, and therefore trapping her within the restraints of WASP norms.
Georgakas, Dan. “My Big Fat Greek Gripes.” Cineaste 28, no.4 (2003): 36-37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41689636.
This background source, more relevant to the second half of my paper, makes the claim that Greek culture in the film industry remains unseen. Using both MBFGW and other films featuring Greeks, Georgakas claims that MBFGW on the surface seems to avoid the problems other ‘Greek’ films have, that being, that they completely remove culture from the term Greek. He claims that the film has legitimate Greekness to it because the producer Rita Wilson is of Greek descent, it was written by Canadian Greek Nia Vardalos, and that major plot elements demonstrate aspects of Greek American culture. But while he does choose to acknowledge these, he brings to light the issue that “Vardalos could have utilized [other cultural quips] for ethnic laughs” and that instead she “opted to exploit the usual ethnic suspects.” Therefore, he is taking away any groundbreaking shock factor that this film had in a Greek-American market because it does not really address Greek culture but Greek cultural stereotypes.
McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” National SEED Project. accessed 1 December 2016. http://nationalseedproject.org/white-privilage-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack .
This is my second theory source I am using to analyze the second part of my paper, which will focus on the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) influences and agenda within the movie. In McIntosh’s article she speaks about white privilege. I will apply this to my paper analyzing MBFGW as a consumer good to a white audience, and how the content wrapped up in the guise of a Greek rom-com is ethnicity being sterilized so as to be more palpable to the white audience towards whom the movie is being marketed towards. I specifically analyze how through the notion that the WASP “ racial group [is]… made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups [Greeks] were likely being made unconfident uncomfortable, and alienated.” This is seen within the movie through use of Greek culture as a comedic relief and the over-exaggeration of Greek culture within an American setting which places it on par with being the equivalent of a laughable parody of the rich culture that it is supposedly derived on.
Panagakos, N. Anastasia. “Recycled odyssey: creating transnational families in the Greek Diaspora.” Global Networks 4, no. 3 (2004): 299-311. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-0374.2004.00095.x.
This background source hits upon the depth of issues that MBFGW plays off as comic relief. In an article composed of three Greek woman’s life stories, the reader is introduced to the brutal fact that the cases Panagakos studies are so “poorly documented… [since scholars] assume that ‘white’ ethnic groups on Canada and the United States are more assimilated and detached from their homelands.” This background source provides an in depth look at problems that arise in Greek families in regards to marriage, economic dependency, and filial piety.
Perren, Alisa. “A Big Fat Indie Success Story? Press Discourses Surrounding the Making and Marketing of “Hollywood” Movie.” Journal of Film and Video 56, no. 2 (2004): 18-31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20688451
In this argument source, scholar Alisa Perren argue that MBFGW should not be viewed as a success story “of one woman and one film defying the odds” because Hollywood had a bigger hand in the production of the film than is touted. I do not disagree with her statement but for different reasons. I plan on using the cover up of a successful independent film to show how the American public took this success story and capitalized on it calling it the American dream. Therefore, complying with the notion that I will argue, that being that Toula (Nia Vardalos) has turned into a white woman and the way this film as a consumer good is viewed only strengthens that image.
Sifneos, Evridiki. “Cosmopolitanism” as a Feature of the Greek Commercial Diaspora.” History and Anthropology 16, no. 1 (2005): 97-111. doi:10.1080/0275720042000316641.
This is another background source that has the potential to be helpful solely based on how the author defines cosmopolitan. The definition being how cosmopolitanism “refer to the manifold expressions of an “international culture” , expressed by the commercial elites before the shaping of national identities.” While this may seem like it will not fit the pretext of what I want to argue in my essay, I feel that it could lend a hand in talking about American commercialization of ethnic culture and how it plays a role in the cosmopolitanism of Hollywood.
Tzanelli, Rodanthi. ““‘Europe’ within and without: Narratives of American culture belonging in and through My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002).” Comparative American Studies an International Journal 2, no. 1 (2004): 39-59. doi:10.1177/1477570004041285.
This argument source is very close to what I want to argue, with its thesis being that “the ‘Greek’, ethnic, element of the movie is only contingent, because the narratives it proffers unveil more about contemporary American self-perception than about Greekness…” This source relies on ratings from IMBD and Amazon as evidence. It also is helpful because it features what the general public thinks MBFGW represents for an ethnic American group, since the movie seems to feature (so called) excess ethnicity and culture as the main problem the protagonist wants to work through. Where I will be breaking from Tzanelli is with how I think that the movie represented a WASP agenda over a Greco one. While Tzanelli focuses on Ian Miller as an “Everyman” who comes to embrace Greek culture in an effort to show how Americans uses Greekness to define themselves, I will say that Ian Miller does not represent America embracing the ‘other’ Greek culture but merely swallowing it and taking over the ethnic aspects of Toula’s identity, reclaiming them and shaping them to fit his WASP perspective. Like Anagnostou, this argument source provides in depth example for me to explore further, and will go towards strengthening my claims.
Vardalos, Nia.Tenacioulsly Procrastinate. By Charlie Rose. Youtube, 2002.
This background source is an interview where Nia Vardalos, writer and star of MBFGW, talks about what it took to get her one-woman show produced into a movie, and what this movie means to the Greek American community as a whole. This interview is helpful in terms of both the production of the movie as a consumer good, but also in terms of what Vardalos wanted to convey with her movie and what it means to her. It provides insight into her inspiration for the film and how it became a household movie name even though it was a low production cost film (5 million-dollar budget). It also introduces the harsh reality of how hard it is to get an ethnic film, with an ethnic actress, broadcasted on the silver screen.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Digital. Directed by Joel Zwick. 2002. City: IFC Films, 2002. Amazon Video.
This is my exhibit source. I will be using the movie (content and as a consumer good) and the protagonist to show how American WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) culture takes over and converts rich ethnic culture to a white -washed American version which is more tolerable to the majority white group within the United States. Toula Portakalis is the main character I will be following, who as the protagonist, faces her own version of Andalzua’s mestiza consciousness. Reading the movie’s content with Andalzua as a theory source, I will explore how Toula both embodies the Greek double consciousness only to throw away the liberation that double consciousness gives her for a new American identity which she gains through her marriage to Ian Miller.