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Indian Accents
Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film
A breakthrough approach in American studies and media culture that shifts the current conversations on Asian Americans and popular culture
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's 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. Davé develops the ideas of "accent," "brownface," and "brown voice" as new ways to explore the racialization of South Asians beyond visual appearance. Davé relates these examples to earlier scholarship on blackface, race, and performance to introduce "accent" as 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.
"A truly innovative use of 'accents' as a methodological entry into understanding where South Asians are positioned within America and American popular culture. Persuasively argued and full of many sharp, insightful moments, Indian Accents will be invaluable to scholars of American studies, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, and media studies."--Gita Rajan, coeditor of New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the US
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http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/47wsn3an9780252037405.html
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