In the late 20th century and beyond, American social movements advocating equality have increased national attention to issues of exclusion, inclusion, and multiculturalism within communities. As a result, studying the nature of communitieshow the term "community" might be defined, who belongs to a given group or social structure, who does not belong, and whyhas become increasingly important. American artists have responded by exploring these sites of social, political, and personal change in their works. Separation Anxieties: Representations of Separatist Communities in Late Twentieth Century Fiction and Film analyzes seven fictional works in which some group is philosophically and/or geographically isolatedsometimes by choice, sometimes notfrom mainstream America. Each chapter in this study focuses on works that represent and explore a different separatist iteration.
Each work utilizes a different representation of Americas dominant community. Their respective separatist characters distance themselves from dominant American society and create a new community defined by a limited set of characteristicsgender and sexuality, religious beliefs, experience, race. Yet the complexities of American life continually creep into their separatist spheres, complicating the characters attempts to belong; these complications often lead to conflicts within, or even to the dissolution of, the separatist communities. In these works, accepting complexities and individual voices is represented as more conducive to communal survival than suppressing alternate ideas and/or dissent. Studying these texts leads to a reconsideration of traditional American myththe "Union," equality, inalienable rights, the various freedoms that America is supposed to embodyand to a reexamination of why those myths might be rejected, of what kinds of communities might be formed, and of how those communities might succeed and fail. Separation Anxieties is an attempt to engage with and understand narrative constructions and, through them, the real-life ideals, communities, and people recognizable in the representation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-01192006-191441 |
| Date | 20 January 2006 |
| Creators | Riley, Brett Alan |
| Contributors | James Catano, Gregory Schufreider, Rick Moreland, John Lowe, John May |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-01192006-191441/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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