American Dreams, Suburban Nightmares: Suburbia as a Narrative Space between Utopia and Dystopia in Contemporary American Cinema
(Sprache: Englisch)
The suburban landscape is inseparable from American culture. Suburbia does not only relate to the geographical concept, but also describes a cultural space incorporating people s hopes for a safe and prosperous life. Suburbia marks a dynamic ideological...
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The suburban landscape is inseparable from American culture. Suburbia does not only relate to the geographical concept, but also describes a cultural space incorporating people s hopes for a safe and prosperous life. Suburbia marks a dynamic ideological space constantly influenced and recreated by both the events of everyday life and artistic discourse. Fictional texts do not merely represent suburbia, but also have a decisive role in the shaping of suburban spaces.The widely held idealized image of suburbia evolved in the 1950s. Today, reality deviates from the concept of suburbs projected back then, due to e.g. high divorce rates and an increase of crime. Nevertheless, the nostalgic view of the suburbs as the Promised Land" has survived.
Postwar critics object to this perception, considering the suburbs rather as depressing landscapes of mass-consumption, conformity and alienation. This book exemplifies the dualistic representation of suburbs in contemporary American cinema by analyzing Pleasantville, The Truman Show and American Beauty. It examines how utopian concepts of suburbia are created culturally and psychologically in the films, and how the underlying anxieties of the suburban experience, visualized by the dystopian narratives, challenge this ideal.
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Chapter 3, Utopian and dystopian narratives of suburbia:As suburbia marks a culturally important and at the same time extremely complex and ambivalent space for Americans, its depiction in fiction is often highly ambiguous as well. Before starting with a detailed analysis of the utopian and dystopian perspectives on suburbia in contemporary American movies, it is necessary to first give a general definition of the concepts of utopia and dystopia as well as an explanation of how these concepts will be used in the further discussion of this book.
The term utopia was firstly introduced by the author Sir Thomas More in 1516, when he published his book Utopia in which he described an imaginary state on an Atlantic island. Borrowed from Greek, the word utopia is ambiguous in its derivation , as its origin can be both ou-topos, meaning no-place , and eu-topos, which can be translated as good place . Thus, the term describes an ideal, perfect society does not exist in reality. Accordingly, utopia is a place that is, in Fern s words, desirable, perhaps, but at the same time unattainable . The typical utopian narrative tells the story of a visitor s guided journey through a utopian society which leads to a comparative response that indicts the visitor s own society , providing him with the image of a possible alternative to his own culture. Thus, the relationship between the protagonist s society and the portrayed utopian culture is always significant for the moral of these stories, as the main character always judges the utopian society by the standards that are inherent to the culture he belongs to. Whether the utopian ideal is, in relation to the protagonist, a wishful vision for the future or represents the longing for [images] of lost paradises and golden ages of the past, it is always locally separated and distant from his actual society. Therefore, access to this perfect world is usually granted to the protagonist only once, making the experience even more precious
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and significant.
With regard to the function of the presentation of such a utopian society, giving a comprehensive analysis would certainly go beyond the scope of this book. In Krishan Kumar s opinion, the purpose of utopian fiction is to overstep the immediate reality to depict a condition whose clear desirability draws us on, like a magnet . As regards the film analyses to follow, I argue that fictional works on utopia on the one hand criticize the actual culture by showing a perfect society in which the problems found in the real world do not exist. On the other hand, these stories also embrace the actual society in the end, as it is made clear that the utopian culture it is compared to is a mere product of fantasy. For that reason one could regard utopian fiction as both experimental and educational, as it explores possible alternatives to the actual state of being in an abstract and fully imaginary space, while in fact leaving the real society untouched. Within the story, it is the informed visitor who, returning to his own society, can decide how to use the insights gained in utopia, while viewing from the outside, the readers or spectators are invited to critically examine their own society according to the standards presented in the fictional world.
The concept of dystopia can be read as a countermovement to utopian literature, as dystopian fiction openly criticizes the existing social conditions or political systems . Whereas utopian fiction explores the differences between the invented and the actual world, the dystopian world is usually depicted as the nightmare future [being] a possible destination of present society . The portrayed dystopia can therefore be interpreted as the logical consequence of the deficiencies found in contemporary society. In contrast to most utopian stories, in which the main character travels to the utopian civilization and then returns to his real society as an enlightened individual, the dystopian text usually beg
With regard to the function of the presentation of such a utopian society, giving a comprehensive analysis would certainly go beyond the scope of this book. In Krishan Kumar s opinion, the purpose of utopian fiction is to overstep the immediate reality to depict a condition whose clear desirability draws us on, like a magnet . As regards the film analyses to follow, I argue that fictional works on utopia on the one hand criticize the actual culture by showing a perfect society in which the problems found in the real world do not exist. On the other hand, these stories also embrace the actual society in the end, as it is made clear that the utopian culture it is compared to is a mere product of fantasy. For that reason one could regard utopian fiction as both experimental and educational, as it explores possible alternatives to the actual state of being in an abstract and fully imaginary space, while in fact leaving the real society untouched. Within the story, it is the informed visitor who, returning to his own society, can decide how to use the insights gained in utopia, while viewing from the outside, the readers or spectators are invited to critically examine their own society according to the standards presented in the fictional world.
The concept of dystopia can be read as a countermovement to utopian literature, as dystopian fiction openly criticizes the existing social conditions or political systems . Whereas utopian fiction explores the differences between the invented and the actual world, the dystopian world is usually depicted as the nightmare future [being] a possible destination of present society . The portrayed dystopia can therefore be interpreted as the logical consequence of the deficiencies found in contemporary society. In contrast to most utopian stories, in which the main character travels to the utopian civilization and then returns to his real society as an enlightened individual, the dystopian text usually beg
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Autoren-Porträt von Melanie Smicek
Melanie Smicek, M.A., was born in a small town near Cologne, Germany, in 1984. She graduated in English Studies at the University of Cologne and additionally earned a Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester. Her interest in the American Culture already evolved in her youth and was strengthened during her time abroad in the USA. Being particularly fascinated by American movies, with American Beauty as her all-time favorite, the author soon observed the significance of suburbia as a cultural space, which motivated her to study the representation of suburbs in American cinema in more detail.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Melanie Smicek
- 2014, Erstauflage, 76 Seiten, 10 Abbildungen, Maße: 15,5 x 22 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Anchor Academic Publishing
- ISBN-10: 3954893215
- ISBN-13: 9783954893218
Sprache:
Englisch
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