F_Smith_12012018.pdf (1.16 MB)
Smoke gets in your eyes: re-reading gender in the "nostalgia film"
Upon its release, American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) was much admired by critics and audiences alike. Yet, in subsequent years, the film became known for its supposed “flattening of history,” and celebration of patriarchal values. This article demonstrates that such a judgement owes much to Fredric Jameson’s historically contingent work on postmodernism, which argues that American Graffiti constitutes the paradigmatic nostalgia film. In contrast, using close textual analysis, I demonstrate that American Graffiti provides a more complex construction of the past, and of gender, than has hitherto been acknowledged. Far from blindly idealising the early 1960s, the film interrogates the processes through which the period and its gender relations come to be idealised. This article has consequences not only for our understanding of Lucas’ seminal film, but also for the American New Wave, and the “nostalgia” text.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Quarterly Review of Film and VideoISSN
1050-9208Publisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
5Volume
35Page range
463-487Department affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-03-09First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-11-09First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-03-09Usage metrics
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