Suburbia as a Narrative Space between Utopia and Dystopia in Contemporary American Cinema

Melanie Smicek

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9783656671381
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Examination Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1, 0, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: [Suburbia] has become the quintessential physical achievement of the United States; it is perhaps more representative of its culture than big cars, tall buildings, or professional football. Suburbia symbolizes the fullest, most unadulterated embodimentof contemporary culture.As Kenneth Jackson notes in his price-winning chronicle Crabgrass Frontier, the suburban landscape has become inseparable from American culture withinthe last two centuries. Nowadays living in the suburbs is the norm for mostAmericans, as since the 1990s, more than two third of the population lives insuburban districts. The term suburbia does not only relate to the geographicalconcept that differentiates these dwellings from urban or rural areas, but alsodescribes a cultural, ideological space incorporating Americans' hopes for aneconomically safe and prosperous family life. Closely tied to the history andculture of the USA, suburbia marks a dynamic ideological space that isconstantly influenced and recreated by both the events of everyday life andartistic discourse. Thus, the depiction of suburban life functions as a centralnarrative element in numerous works of American literature, art and film. Inthis context, fictional texts do not merely represent suburbia, but also have adecisive role in the shaping of suburban spaces.The treatment of suburbia as a cultural space in American movies is ofspecial interest, as their commercial success and popularity make filmsimportant cultural texts. As Spigel notes, "television and new media redirectour experience of private and public spheres" and therefore highly influenceour perceptions of the spaces we inhabit. Regarding suburban landscapes, thisaspect is particularly interesting because the inexorable rise of the televisionpractically coincided with the postwar suburbanization of the US and had asignificant effect on life in general and on the suburban ideal in particular. As a consequence, the TV-set was inseparable from the model of the suburbansingle-home in the 1950s. Thus, already in the fifties, when the idealized imageof suburbia evolved, television had a decisive impact on the creation ofsuburbia as a cultural space. In this context, it must be questioned whether thedepictions of suburbia are simulations of the real spaces, or if it is in fact the other way around, so that suburbia as a cultural concept is a mere simulation of the fictional spaces depicted on screen and thus a copy without an original.