A Study of American Cultural Hegemony through Hollywood Movies

Abstract
American cultural hegemony, or sometimes interpreted as American cultural imperialism, has been recognized recently as the result of increasing cultural diffusion. Generally defined as the promulgation of global ideologies through the worldwide expansion of U.S. influence on international affairs, American cultural hegemony is, or will be, a potential threat to the individual cultural identity and integrity of other countries. The movie art, which has been used as a wonderful method to convey culture and propagate ideology since the World War II, occupies an important position in American foreign cultural strategy. Endowed with the feature of both commercial and artistic, and the quality of entertainment and dissemination, Hollywood movies are transmitting American cultural hegemony to the world easily and effectively, among which the best pictures of Academy Award, better known as Oscar winners, reflect the mainstream cultural recognition of America and act as the best tunnel of ideological delivery. How to understand American cultural hegemony, how to discover the hegemony veiled by the movies entertaining package, and how the hegemonic elements hidden in the movies to influence audiences’ concepts? The thesis will analyze these questions profoundly, based upon the study of Louis Giannetti’s theory of ideology in movies, Antonio Gramsci’s interpretation of cultural hegemony and the Frankfurt School’s idea about mass culture and public media.
Key words: American cultural hegemony, Hollywood movies, ideology, cultural defense
摘        要
美国的文化霸权，也可以理解为美国文化帝国主义，是全球文化不断交流传播的结果，近年来受到越来越多的认识与关注。广泛意义上来说，美国的文化霸权是指美国通过在国际事务上的影响力提高所推行的意识形态传播。这种文化霸权对于其他国家文化的自我认同和完整性来说，无论是现在还是将来，都是一种潜在的威胁。自二战以来，电影就被用作传播文化、搭载意识形态的媒介，并且在美国对外文化战略上占有重要地位。电影包含商业和艺术两方面的特质，具有娱乐和宣传的能力，正因为如此，好莱坞电影才能轻易而高效地将美国的文化霸权输送到世界各国。那些在学院奖（即奥斯卡金像奖）评选中获得最佳影片的电影，能够反映出每年美国社会的主流观念，这些电影无疑是传播意识形态最好的媒介。如何理解当今美国推行的文化霸权，如何发现电影娱乐包装背后的文化内涵，以及这些霸权元素如何通过电影影响观众的思想观念，本文以路易斯•贾内第有关电影中意识形态的理论，安东尼奥•葛兰西对文化霸权的研究以及法兰克福学派对大众文化和传媒的理论为基础，结合对2000年以后奥斯卡最佳影片的解读，对以上问题作出了分析。
关键词：美国；文化霸权；好莱坞电影；意识形态