Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-254), filmography (p. 238-247), and index.

Introduction : Hollywood cinema and the "Other" -- The Other and the wilderness -- The myth of the frontier -- Chasing Chinese shadows : the Yellow Peril reconsidered -- The exotic as spectacle -- Otherness in the night : film noir -- Of monsters and cold wars -- The myth of the zombie -- Apocalypse now on a borderline of consciousness -- Refigurations of the exotic in contemporary cinema -- Steven Spielberg and the sanctification of difference -- Jim Jarmusch or communication in crisis -- The persistence of King Kong.