The American Midwest in Film and Literature

Adam R. Ochonicky

Description

How do works from film and literature—Sister Carrie, Native Son, Meet Me in St. Louis, Halloween, and A History of Violence, for example—imagine, reify, and reproduce Midwestern identity? And what are the repercussions of such regional narratives and images circulating in American culture? In The American Midwest in Film and Literature: Nostalgia, Violence, and Regionalism, Adam R. Ochonicky provides a critical overview of the evolution, contestation, and fragmentation of the Midwest's symbolic and often contradictory meanings. Using the frontier writings of Frederick Jackson Turner as a starting point, this book establishes a succession of Midwestern filmic and literary texts stretching from the late-19th century through the beginning of the 21st century and argues that the manifold properties of nostalgia have continually transformed popular understandings and ideological uses of the Midwest's place-identity. Ochonicky identifies three primary modes of nostalgia at play across a set of textual objects: the projection of nostalgia onto physical landscapes and into the cultural sphere (nostalgic spatiality); nostalgia as a cultural force that regulates behaviors, identities, and appearances (nostalgic violence); and the progressive potential of nostalgia to generate an acknowledgment and possible rectification of ways in which the flawed past negatively affects the present (nostalgic atonement). While developing these new conceptions of nostalgia, Ochonicky reveals how an under-examined area of regional study has received critical attention throughout the histories of American film and literature, as well as in related materials and discourses. From the closing of the Western frontier to the polarized political and cultural climate of the 21st century, this book demonstrates how film and literature have been and continue to be vital forums for illuminating the complex interplay of regionalism and nostalgia.

Introduction: Nostalgia and Regionalism
PART 1: Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nostalgia and the Midwest
1. Nostalgic Spatiality
2. Spatial Constriction, Race, and Midwestern Stagnation
3. Nostalgic Violence, Nebulous Spaces, and Blank Identities
PART 2: The Millennial Midwest on Film
4. Masculinity, Race, and Violence
5. Locating Sincerity, Disillusionment, and Paranoia
6. Nostalgic Atonement
Conclusion: Nostalgic Frontiers
Afterword: Regionalism and Politics

Sujets

• Midwest
• Comparative Literature
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Mensajería instantánea
• Película fotográfica
• State
• History of the Americas
• History of film
• United States
• KS
• Local
• IL
• ND
• IN
• NE
• OH
• MN
• SD
• MO
• MI
• Film
• Wall Street

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 04 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253045997
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE AMERICAN MIDWEST IN FILM AND LITERATURE
THE AMERICAN MIDWEST IN FILM AND LITERATURE
Nostalgia, Violence, and Regionalism
ADAM R. OCHONICKY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2020 by Adam R. Ochonicky
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-04596-6 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-253-04597-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-04599-7 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 24 23 22 21 20 19
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Nostalgia and Regionalism
Part I: Twentieth-Century Narratives of Nostalgia and the Midwest
1. Nostalgic Spatiality
2. Spatial Constriction, Race, and Midwestern Stagnation
3. Nostalgic Violence, Nebulous Spaces, and Blank Identities
Part II: The Millennial Midwest on Film
4. Masculinity, Race, and Violence
5. Locating Sincerity, Disillusionment, and Paranoia
6. Nostalgic Atonement
Conclusion: Nostalgic Frontiers
Afterword: Regionalism and Politics
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Simply writing the acknowledgments for this project has left me, indeed, in a nostalgic state. I produced the first draft of this book during a portion of my ten years living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Having moved north from St. Louis, I quickly came to love the Cream City s many charms. I m grateful for the lasting friendships that developed with my colleagues, neighbors, and others from the local film, music, literary, and art communities. There are many, many individuals to whom I owe a hearty thanks.
At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), I was fortunate to have worked with an array of incredible faculty and staff members. First, I wish to thank Patrice Petro, who has enriched my scholarly career in so many ways. Her speedy and invaluable feedback helped to give shape to this book during the initial drafting process, particularly in terms of maintaining focus on big picture issues. I m also appreciative of the opportunity that she provided for me to work at UWM s Center for International Education (CIE), her inclusiveness in both professional and social settings, and simply her ongoing kindness and support.
When I was first conceptualizing this project, Andrew Kincaid recommended-and I paraphrase- writing about what you know, at least in terms of place: in this case, the Midwest. Andrew continued to provide many helpful insights as the project evolved. Jason Puskar s rigorous critiques of my writing were immensely useful for streamlining chapters and spotlighting my own arguments. Elena Gorfinkel provided essential feedback as I prepared this manuscript for publication, and her work on temporality in cinema influenced my treatment of nostalgia in this project. I m grateful to Andrew Martin for his steady presence and generosity during my time at UWM.
Along with Patrice, Andrew, Jason, Elena, and Andy, I wish to thank several additional people currently and formerly with UWM, especially those in the Film Studies program. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Gilberto Blasini, Tami Williams, Ben Schneider, Tasha Oren, Peter Paik, Pete Sands, and Jamie Poster. I m indebted to the Film Studies program s faculty committee for giving me the leeway to develop and regularly teach an undergraduate course on the Midwest in film; my work on that course greatly influenced the organization and substance of this book. I also appreciate the faculty committee enabling me to serve as archivist of the program s collection of holdings for several years and for their initial invitation to teach in the Film Studies program. On that latter note, I m thankful to Tasha, Ben, and Jamie for generously sharing insights about film pedagogy. In UWM s Department of English, Kristie Hamilton has given continual support and guidance since I first arrived in Milwaukee.
There are numerous other professional colleagues and associates who deserve recognition. Special thanks go to Victoria Johnson, whose friendship and advice I ve greatly valued over the past several years. It s difficult to overstate the importance of Vicky s work for my own project; her book, Heartland TV: Prime Time Television and the Struggle for U.S. Identity , is a milestone in linking Midwestern studies with television and media studies. I m grateful to Zoran Samardzija, who has given constructive feedback on several chapters in my book. Zoran also invited me to speak about my project as part of the Chicago Film Seminar lecture series at DePaul University; that talk occurred just as I received my book contract, and Zoran s prepared response (and the comments of audience members) informed my manuscript revisions. Susan Kerns provided many useful recommendations about films to address in this project and to include in the course that I taught about the Midwest on film.
In my current position at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (UWO), I have many wonderful colleagues in the Department of English. Extra thanks go to Roberta Maguire, Don Dingledine, Pascale Manning, Stewart Cole, and Stephen McCabe. Roberta served as department chair when I was hired, and I ve benefited from her sage guidance on a wide variety of matters.
As an undergraduate at Saint Louis University (SLU), Vince Casaregola introduced me to the study of film at the college level; in recent years, I ve enjoyed a renewed friendship with Vince after crossing paths at conferences. From my undergraduate years, I also wish to thank Fred Arroyo, who significantly influenced my career and life. At SLU, I took two of Fred s seminars; both courses were highly formative for my ongoing interests in memory, nostalgia, and place. The seeds of this very book can be traced to the undergraduate writing that I produced for Fred, and I remain grateful for his careful, detailed feedback and general encouragement to make sense of the past through writing.
As an instructor at both UWM and UWO, I ve had the opportunity to teach Midwestern content in multiple contexts. It s been a pleasure to work with, respectively, Film Studies majors and English majors at those institutions, and I m grateful for their enthusiastic response to the materials that I ve curated for several different courses. Their lively and critical engagement with Midwestern narratives and iconography-as depicted in films, literature, graphic novels, and television series-has inspired new directions in my own thinking about such materials. Encountering such passionate students has been one of the many rewarding aspects of my work on regionalism.
I ve been quite pleased to serve on the editorial board of Middle West Review ( MWR ) since the journal first launched in 2014. Along with thanking Jon K. Lauck and the other members of the board, I d like to express my gratitude to Paul Mokrzycki Renfro for his stewardship of MWR as editor-in-chief during its first five volumes, for inviting me to join the board when the journal was in its developmental stage, and for backing my efforts to further bring film, television, and media scholarship into the interdisciplinary purview of MWR . It s been exciting to help establish MWR as a scholarly journal and to collaborate on the renewal and expansion of the interdisciplinary study of the Midwest. On a similar note, I m especially appreciative of the other scholarly journals, publication venues, and conferences that have been receptive to my scholarship on the Midwest in film, television, and other forms of media. While completing this book, I curated a short piece on NewsRadio (NBC, 1995-1999) for a theme week on Flyover States and Representations of the U.S. Midwest at In Media Res ; thanks to Emily Kofoed for organizing the theme week and accepting my proposed piece, as well as to my fellow curators, particularly Tony Harkins. An earlier, shorter version of chapter 4 of this book-which focused on A History of Violence (2005) and Boys Don t Cry (1999)-was published in the Quarterly Review of Film and Video ( QRFV ), volume 32, issue 2. My thanks to the editors of QRFV and to the Taylor Francis Group for granting permission to reprint that material. I previously published a review of Two American Families (PBS, 2013) in Middle West Review , volume 1, issue 1. Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for granting permission to reproduce that piece in a revised and expanded version as part of the Afterword of this book. Over the past several years, I ve presented content from nearly every chapter of this book at numerous conferences. The comments of my fellow panelists and the audience members helped this book to reach its current state. Further, I m grateful to the organizers who accepted my proposals on Midwestern topics for the conferences of the following organizations and journals: the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), the Modern Language Association (MLA), the Literature/Film Association (LFA), Film History, and the Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA). At the MLA and MMLA conferences, I presented on several panels affiliated with the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (SSML); thanks to Marilyn Atlas for orga