This thesis takes a cultural studies approach to representations of post-war U.S.
suburbia in Richard Yates’ 1961 novel Revolutionary Road, as well as in the
contemporary AMC television series Mad Men. These texts explore the postwar time
period, which holds a persistently prominent and idealized space in the collective cultural
imagination of America, despite the fact that it was a period troubled by isolationism,
containment culture, rampant consumerism, and extreme pressure to conform to social
roles. This project disrupts the romantic narrative of postwar America by focusing on the
latent anxiety within the suburban landscape—by interrogating the performative nature of
the planned communities of the 1950s and 1960s and exposing the tensions that were
borne out of the rise of domesticity and consumerism. This project explores the descent
into a society obsessed with consumerism and conformity, and seeks to interrogate the
culture’s false nostalgia for the time period. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_13075 |
| Contributors | Kiley, Erin M (author), Ulin, Julieann V. (Thesis advisor), Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters (Degree grantor), Department of English |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 92 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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