Dissertationsprojekt: “Coming of Age on the Margin – (South-)East Asian American Adolescence in American Film and TV” (working title)

How does the representation of (South-)East Asian American adolescents in film and TV differentiate from (South-)East Asian American representation in American media in general? To find answers to this question, this PhD thesis examines to what extent (South-)East Asian American pre-teens, adolescents, and young adults are stereotyped, how their representation has developed over the history of Coming-of-Age-themed non-animated films and TV shows, and how this development is reflected in the general medial representation of (South-)East Asian migration history in the USA.

The investigation will be conducted primarily through film, episode, and sequence analyses and will focus on (media-)cultural and postcolonial aspects of the plot arcs of characters, their dialogues, narrative aspects, and orchestration. Fictionalized (South-)East Asian American adolescents are often restricted to an existence within a cultural dichotomy postulated by Natsu Taylor Saito as "Model Minority, Yellow Peril" (Saito 1997). The issue of (South-) East Asian American identity and its characterization is the main research focus. It examines how the absence, stereotyped presence, or complex portrayal of (South-)East Asian American characters affects the perception of both real-life (South-)East Asian American adolescents, and American adolescents and young adults overall. According to scholars like Harry M. Benshoff or Catherine Discroll, societies depicted on screen and on stage affect an audience’s impression of how “reality” looks like; an influence that is significantly formative to younger audience’s self-perception, as well as their perception of their surroundings.

The questions arising based on this assumption are: Is a society depicted as homogeneously white perceived as "normal" by adolescents? Do films and TV Shows portray the actual cultural diversity of American society as more "normal" over time? How does this affect the depiction of (South-)East Asian Americans in media and, by extension, American culture?

 

Short Biography

• Since April 2022: a.r.t.e.s. Integrated Track scholarship program under the supervision of
Prof. Dr. Hanjo Berressem, Prof. Dr. Anke Ortlepp, and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beil
• October 2021-March 2022: a.r.t.e.s. PreDoc scholarship program
• Since August 2021: doctoral studies in the field of North American Studies at the University of Cologne
• 2019-2020: Student tutor at the Institute of North American History (University of Cologne)
• 2017-2021: Master of Arts in North American Studies at the University of Cologne
• 2013-2017: Bachelor of Arts in German Language and Literature studies and English Studies at the University of Cologne

 

Contact: wannera@smail.uni-koeln.de