BHUM 17A13 - American Nightmare? American dystopias on the screen

Alternative (hi)stories of a bleak and despaired America have been flourishing on the screen. Recent acclaimed works such as Watchmen, The Plot Against America, The Handmaid’s Tale, Get Out and Children of Men depict worlds plagued with systemic racism, fascist democracies, extremist groups and gender inequity, just to name a few of their narrative directions. When asked about her dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Atwood said: “One of my rules was that I would not put any events into the book that had not already happened in what James Joyce called the “nightmare” of history.” And indeed, the nightmarish and distorted cities and landscapes on the screen often work as a reckoning with some of the country’s problematic past – the silencing of the oppressed, the erasure of minorities from the official History.

The course will thus be centered on the various tendencies and strategies of fictions showing dystopic versions of the American dream. We will focus on recent works, as well as film classics, for example Romero’s horror masterpiece Night of The Living Dead. We will discuss how well-known film classics shaped a problematic version of the American myth (as shown by the recent debates surrounding Gone With The Wind). We will also examine the historical roots behind certain motifs (for example the fetishization of black bodies on the screen.)

We will comment on the works as a whole (structure, screenplay, esthetic choices, character development, “message,” narrative arcs, reception, show’s mythology, etc.) as well as analyze specific scenes (there will be a short introduction to filmic analysis during the first class.)

(We will focus on specific episodes of TV shows Watchmen and The Plot Against America – it will be required that students watch the previous episodes of the season on their own, in addition to other works studied.)

TBD