The American Dream and American Cinema in the Age of Trump
From Object Relations to Social Relations
- 240 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The American Dream and American Cinema in the Age of Trump
From Object Relations to Social Relations
About this book
The American Dream and American Cinema in the Age of Trump uses both film theory and insights from object relations theory in order to examine how recent films address and reflect the state of the 'American Dream'. This fascinating book looks at how the American Dream is one of the organising ideas of American cinema, and one of the most influential cultural outputs of the twenty-first century, at a time of internal crisis.
In an era characterised by populism, climate change and economic uncertainty, the book considers nine auteur films in how they illustrate the challenges of contemporary America. Graham S. Clarke and Ross Clarke present a bifocal perspective on some of the most well-received American films of recent years and how they relate to the American Dream in the context of the Trump presidency. For each of the nine films discussed, two different accounts are presented side by side so that each film is considered from an object relations psychoanalytic point of view (internal world) as well as a film and cultural theory perspective (external world). This unique approach is complemented by discussion of political and critical theory, providing a thorough and engaging analysis.
Challenging and insightful, The American Dream and American Cinema in the Age of Trump will be of great interest to scholars of cinema, popular culture, American studies and psychoanalytic studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Endorsements
- Half Title
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Series Preface
- Introduction: The American Dream and a Binocular Approach to Analysing Film
- 1. External Worlds: American Dream, American Nightmare: Cinema in the Age of Trump
- 2. Internal Worlds: Fairbairn’s Psychology of Dynamic Structure
- 3. The Revenant (Iñárritu, 2015): The Past is Another Country
- 4. Roma (Cuarón, 2018): Anamorphic Social Realism
- 5. First Reformed ((The Old Guard) Schrader, 2017): As Little as Possible; Roads to Freedom
- 6. Sicario (Villeneuve, 2015): The Rule of Law and the Terrorist State
- 7. Joker (Phillips, 2019): Put on a Happy Face
- 8. You Were Never Really Here (Ramsay, 2017): Being the Law and PTSD
- 9. Widows (McQueen, 2018): A Heist on Patriarchy
- 10. Us (Peele, 2019): Underclass! The Return of the Repressed
- 11. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Tarantino, 2019): The Way I See Things
- Conclusion: Reflections on the USA Presidential Elections and the End of Trump: The King is Dead; Long Live the King
- Epilogue: Nomadland (Zhao, 2020): Refuge of the Road: The Starry Misfits of Old New Frontiers
- Filmography
- Index