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

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 embodiment
of contemporary culture.

As Kenneth Jackson notes in his price-winning chronicle Crabgrass Frontier,
the suburban landscape has become inseparable from American culture within
the last two centuries. Nowadays living in the suburbs is the norm for most
Americans, as since the 1990s, more than two third of the population lives in
suburban districts. The term suburbia does not only relate to the geographical
concept that differentiates these dwellings from urban or rural areas, but also
describes a cultural, ideological space incorporating Americans' hopes for an
economically safe and prosperous family life. Closely tied to the history and
culture of the USA, suburbia marks a dynamic ideological space that is
constantly influenced and recreated by both the events of everyday life and
artistic discourse. Thus, the depiction of suburban life functions as a central
narrative element in numerous works of American literature, art and film. In
this context, fictional texts do not merely represent suburbia, but also have a
decisive role in the shaping of suburban spaces.
The treatment of suburbia as a cultural space in American movies is of
special interest, as their commercial success and popularity make films
important cultural texts. As Spigel notes, "television and new media redirect
our experience of private and public spheres" and therefore highly influence
our perceptions of the spaces we inhabit. Regarding suburban landscapes, this
aspect is particularly interesting because the inexorable rise of the television
practically coincided with the postwar suburbanization of the US and had a
significant 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 suburban
single-home in the 1950s. Thus, already in the fifties, when the idealized image
of suburbia evolved, television had a decisive impact on the creation of
suburbia as a cultural space. In this context, it must be questioned whether the
depictions 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.