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THE HOLLYWOOD YOUTH NARRATIVE AND THE FAMILY VALUES CAMPAIGN, 1980-1992 by Clare Connors Bachelor of Arts, Macalester College, 1982 Masters of Arts, University of Louisville, 1987 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2005 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Clare Connors It was defended on April 15, 2005 and approved by Dr. Marcia Landy Dr. Troy Boone Dr. Carol Stabile Dr. Lucy Fischer Dissertation Director ii THE HOLLYWOOD YOUTH NARRATIVE AND THE FAMILY VALUES CAMPAIGN, 1980-1992 Clare Connors, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2005 The dissertation seeks to identify and analyze the cultural work performed by the Hollywood youth narrative during the 1980s and early nineties, a period that James Davison Hunter has characterized as a domestic “culture war.” This era of intense ideological confrontation between philosophical agendas loosely defined as “liberal” and “conservative,” increasing social change, and social polarization and gender/sexual orientation backlash began with Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1980 and continued for twelve years through the presidency of George Bush, Sr. The dissertation examines the Hollywood youth narrative in the context of the family values debate and explicates its role in negotiating and resolving social conflict in a period of intense social change and ideological confrontation. The dissertation theorizes the historic and cultural function of the Hollywood youth narrative in “translating” complex social problems into generational and familial conflicts that can be easily, if superficially, resolved through conventional Hollywood genre narrative structures. In the specific instance of the family values debate during the 1980s and early 1990s, the dissertation analyzes how important low-budget Hollywood youth narratives iii both supported and challenged the traditional translation of social conflict into easily resolved generational conflict to reveal the complex social and economic factors behind the “crisis in the American family.” “The Fifties” played a critical role in debates regarding family life during the Reagan and Bush era. The dissertation explicates and contrasts the definitions of “the Fifties” and the use of 1950s Hollywood film and television materials in the Hollywood youth narrative and Family Values Campaign and demonstrates how young filmmakers used the icons, images and narrative structures of important 1950s Hollywood films to both support and challenge the socially conservative vision of American family life promoted by the Family Values Campaign and its New Right supporters. Through an analysis of Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge and Micheal Lehmann’s Heathers, the dissertation demonstrates how two Hollywood youth narratives of the period reveal the fundamental contradictions between the New Right’s idealized versions of American family values and the values of laissez faire capitalism, the often devastating impact of Reaganomics on the family as a site of social reproduction, and the troubled relationship between youth and consumer culture. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction......................................................................................................................viii 1. Chapter One: Defining and Theorizing the Hollywood Youth Narrative and the Family Values Campaign .........................................................................................1 1.1. Defining the Hollywood Youth Narrative........................................................1 1.2. The Historical Roots of the American Comprehensive High School in the 1950s ………………………………………………………………………………………….7 1.3. The High School and the Development of Teen Consumer Culture and Teen Markets................................................................................................................10 1.4. A Review and Critique of the Critical Literature .........................................12 1.5. Theorizing the Hollywood Youth Narrative ...................................................18 1.6. Defining the Family Values Campaign.........................................................24 1.7. Critical Evaluations of the Use of 1950s Film and Television in Hollywood Youth Narratives and the Family Values Campaign .............................................36 1.8. Contributions to the Study of the Hollywood Youth Narrative and the Discipline of Film Studies.............................................................................................41 2. Chapter Two: Turning Back the Clock: Competing Definitions and Uses of “the Fifties” in the Family Values Campaign and the Hollywood Youth Narrative ……………………………………………………………………………………………...43 2.1. “The Fifties” in 1970s Popular Culture ............................................................46 2.2. “The Fifties” in the Political Discourse of the 1980s ......................................59 2.2.1. The Political Appeal and Impossibility of “the Fifties” for the 1980s ..62 2.2.2. Materials and Materials Used to Create the New Right's Definition of “the Fifties”................................................................................................................68 2.3. The 1950s in the Hollywood Youth Narrative: A Genre in the Process of Updating Itself..............................................................................................................82 3. Chapter Three: "Am I Evil?" Youth, Horror, and Monstrosity in River's Edge ...88 3.1. River's Edge, 1980s Hollywood and the Dangerous Youth Film Sub-Genre ………………………………………………………………………………………...90 3.1.1. A History of the "Dangerous Youth" Film Narrative Sub-Genre ..........93 3.1.2. Conventions of the "Dangerous Youth" Hollywood Youth Narrative Sub-Genre.................................................................................................................97 3.1.3. Youth as Social Monsters: Classic Film Horror Conventions and the "Dangerous Youth" Hollywood Youth Narrative Sub-Genre ...........................102 3.1.3.1. Classic Film Horror and the Required Presence of a Monster ..103 3.1.3.2. The Monster and the Return of the Repressed ...........................106 3.1.3.3. Classic Film Horror Narrative Structure .........................................109 3.1.3.4. Classic Film Horror and the Circulation of Fear and Suspense.110 v 3.1.3.5. Classic Film Horror, Projection and Social Power........................112 3.1.3.6. Gender and Theories of Victimization in Classic Film Horror.....114 3.1.3.7. The Dual Potential of Classic Horror Narratives to Protect and/or Challenge the Political Unconscious ..............................................................116 3.2. The Conrad/Broussard Murder and the 1980s: "Youth in Crisis" Campaign as Social Horror Stories..............................................................................................119 3.2.1. The Conrad/Broussard Murder as Social Horror Story .......................119 3.2.2. Broussard and the Milpitas Youth as the Monstrous Other...............123 3.2.3. The Return of the Repressed .................................................................130 3.2.4. Conrad as Female Victim and Traditional Horror Gender Roles.....131 3.2.5. The Murder Investigation and Trial as Horror Narratives Fueled by Escalating Fear and Anger ..................................................................................132 3.2.6. Projection of the Return of the Repressed onto the Youth ..............137 3.2.7. The Conservative Agenda and the Preservation of the Political, Social and Economic Unconscious ....................................................................139 3.2.8. The 1980s Youth in Crisis Campaign and Youth as Social Scapegoats in Reagan's War on Drugs ....................................................................................140 3.3. Deconstructing Youth as Social Monster to Redefine Social Monstrosity ……………………………………………………………………………………….148 3.3.1. Horror Syntactic Inversion and the Deconstruction of Youth As Social Monster ………………………………………………………………………………….148 3.3.2. River's Edge and the Inversion of Classic Film Horror Conventions to Deconstruct Youth as Social Monsters ...............................................................152 3.4. Syntactic Inversion and the Redefinition of Semantic Elements of River's Edge ……………………………………………………………………………………….166 3.4.1. Physical and Social Landscapes as Visual Metaphors .....................167 3.4.2. Repetitive Action, Doubling, and Mirroring ........................................176 3.4.3. Jamie's Corpse as Main Character, Narrative Center and Organizing Image..................................................................................................179 3.4.4. Soundtrack...............................................................................................185 4. Chapter Four: From Proms to Bombs:...............................................................194 4.1. Heathers, High School and the Conflict Between Democratic Values and Consumer Culture.............................................................................................197 4.1.1. American Consumerism During the 1980s and early 1990s .............204 4.1.2. Competing Solutions to the Conflict Between Democratic and Consumer Culture .................................................................................................210 4.2. Heathers, the Family