Look closer : suburban narratives and American values in film and television / David R. Coon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coon, David R., 1974-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Suburban life in motion pictures.

United States--In motion pictures.

United States.

Suburban life on television.

United States--On television.

Physical Description:

viii, 269 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2014]

Summary:

In Regent Years, the media landscape in the United States has followed a pattern similar to that of the physical landscape by becoming increasingly suburbanized. Although it is a far cry from reality, the fantasy of a perfect suburban life still exists in the collective imagination of millions of Americans. This dream of suburban perfection is built around a variety of such ideologically conservative values and ideals as the importance of tradition, the centrality of the nuclear family, the desire for a community of like-minded neighbors, the need for clearly defined gender roles, and the belief that with hard work and determination, anyone can succeed. Building on the relationships between suburban life and-American identity, Look Closer examines and interprets recent narratives that challenge the suburban ideal to reveal how directors and producers are mobilizing the spaces of suburbia to tell new kinds of stories about America. David R. Coon argues that the myth of suburban perfection, popularized by postwar sitcoms and advertisements, continues to symbolize a range of intensely debated issues related to tradition, family, gender, race, and citizenship. Through close examinations of such films as American Beauty, The Truman Show, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, as well as such television series as Desperate Housewives, Weeds, and Big Love, the book demonstrates how suburbia is used to critique the ideologies that underpin the suburban American Dream. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: welcome to the neighborhood

Traditional values: nostalgia and self-reflexivity in visual representations of suburbia

Back yard fences: the public, the private, and the family in suburban dramas

Suburban citizenship: defining community through the exclusion of racial and sexual minorities

Desperate husbands: the crisis of hegemonic masculinity in post-9/11 suburbia

Protecting the suburban lifestyle: consumption, crime, and the American dream

Conclusion: there goes the neighborhood.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780813562087

0813562082

9780813562070

0813562074

OCLC:

840803746