Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Virginia Woolf famously wrote 'as a woman I have no country', suggesting that women had little stake in defending countries where they are considered second-class citizens, and should instead be forces for peace. Yet women have been perpetrators as well as victims of violence in nationalist conflicts. This unique book generates insights into the role of gender in nationalist violence by examining feature films from a range of conflict zones. In The Battle of Algiers, female bombers destroy civilians while men dress in women's clothes to prevent the French army from capturing and torturing them. Prisoner of the Mountains shows a Chechen girl falling in love with her Russian captive as his mother tries to rescue him. Providing historical and political context to these and other films, Matthew Evangelista identifies the key role that economic decline plays in threatening masculine identity and provoking the misogynistic violence that often accompanies nationalist wars.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of figures (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xi)
• 1 Virginia WoolfÆs purse (p. 1)
• War at it mostly male activity (p. 4)
• Hypotheses on gender, nationalism, and war (p. 11)
• Masculinity, femininity, and violence in the American Western (p. 17)
• Trailer: gender and nationalist violence on film (p. 21)
• 2 Algeria: a world constructed out of ruins (p. 25)
• Colonial exploitation and discrimination (p. 27)
• Gender roles before the independence movement (p. 32)
• Origins of the Algerian war (p. 35)
• Subverting stereotypes in The Battle of Algiers (p. 39)
• Pontecorvo's neorealism and its limits (p. 58)
• Algeria after independence (p. 63)
• The proliferation of small (misogynist) men (p. 66)
• Legacies of violence (p. 78)
• 3 Yugoslavia: archetype or anomaly? (p. 80)
• Yugoslavia's history: conflict and coexistence (p. 82)
• What constitutes difference? Bosnia's ephemeral ethnicity (p. 86)
• Grievance and greed: economic sources of conflict (p. 90)
• Media manipulation: "Television was more important than history" (p. 95)
• Women and nationalism in Yugoslavia (p. 98)
• Gender and the wars (p. 103)
• Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (p. 114)
• 4 Chechnya: virgins, mothers, and terrorists (p. 139)
• Two centuries of Russo-Chechen relations (p. 143)
• Solidifying stereotypes in Chechnya (p. 145)
• Socio-economic change and the demise of the Soviet model (p. 147)
• Chechnya's bid for independence (p. 149)
• War after war (p. 151)
• Women, violence, and Islam (p. 156)
• Gender between tradition and modernity (p. 159)
• Sexual violence and the limits of peacemaking (p. 165)
• Chechnya on screen (p. 169)
• From romantic realism to crude caricature (p. 177)
• From "White Stockings" to "Black Widows" (p. 187)
• Gender role reversal and the promise of redemption (p. 192)
• 5 Québec: oui, no, or femme (p. 203)
• Origins of French Canadian nationalism (p. 204)
• Women and the early nationalist movement (p. 209)
• The Quiet Revolution (p. 212)
• Language and sovereignty (p. 214)
• The FLQ and the October Crisis (p. 218)
• No: "The culture survives because of the mothers" (p. 223)
• Yvette and the 1980 referendum (p. 236)
• Choosing not to choose: "So what's the problem?" (p. 242)
• 6 "To live to see better times": gender, nationalism, sovereignty, equality (p. 253)
• Nationalism (p. 255)
• Sovereignty (p. 259)
• Equality (p. 263)
• Sequel: gender and nationalist violence on film (p. 269)
• Index (p. 272)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Evangelista (Cornell Univ.) weaves the topics of gender, nationalism, war, and movies into a narrative guided by a variety of themes and theories as interconnected explanations. The focus is on the relationship between gender and nationalism in the context of war. Case studies of nationalist struggles in Algeria, Yugoslavia, Chechnya, and Quebec are the core of the book. Each chapter focuses on political history, social context, and feminist (including the male foundations of conflict) interpretations of causations and effects. Film illustrates the case study themes--sometimes effectively (e.g., The Battle of Algiers), sometimes less so (the variety of films on Chechnya). Quebec seems a curious case to include as it does not incorporate the component of war. Vietnam, briefly discussed in the concluding chapter, seems more relevant. This ambitious book has broad themes and specific case studies but needs an effective integrative element that is not quite there. An essay by Virginia Woolf used as an organizational theme provides contradictions as well as illuminations. Still, this admirable work will stimulate anyone interested in any of its four elements. Summing Up: Recommended. All undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. R. M. Fulton Northwest Missouri State University