New on our bookshelf:
Our Fears Made Manifest: Essays on Terror, Trauma and Loss in Film, 1998-2019
Edited by Ashley Jae Carranza
The beginning of the 21st century was a time of unprecedented events in American society: Y2K, 9/11 and the wars that followed, partisan changes in government and the rapid advancements of the Internet and mass consumerism. In the two decades since, popular culture—particularly film—has manifested the underlying anxieties of the American psyche. This collection of new essays examines dozens of movies released 1998–2020 and how they drew upon and spoke to mass cultural fears. Contributors analyze examples across a range of genres—horror, teen rom-coms, military flicks, slow-burns, and animated children’s films—covering topics including gender and sexuality, environmental politics, technophobia, xenophobia, and class and racial inequality.
