Date Available
1-23-2016
Year of Publication
2016
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
English
Advisor
Dr. Virginia L. Blum
Abstract
Since September 11, 2001 a substantial number of English-language, post-apocalyptic films have been released. This renewed interest in the genre has prompted scholars to examine the circumstances within western society that make post-apocalyptic films appealing to audiences. The popularity of these films derives from a narrative structure that reinforces conservative notions of good and bad and moral absolutism. The post-9/11, post-apocalyptic film typically features a white male hero who, in one way or another, reestablishes the pre-apocalyptic social order through proclamations of mandatory and prohibitive laws that must be adhered to by the survivors. The hero of post-apocalyptic film does not present any alternative to the pre-apocalyptic, white masculinist society, but instead appears motivated, if not ordained by narrative, to enforce the pre-apocalyptic rules and mores in a way that disregards the events and circumstances of the apocalypse itself. This dissertation uses psychoanalytic theory, starting with Sigmund Freud and continuing to theorists such as Slavoj Zizek, to investigate the motivations for survivors in post-apocalyptic films to form communities that return to early patriarchy, where prohibitive laws reinforce patriarchal authority through the mandates of the white male father figure.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.008
Recommended Citation
Cosey, Felicia, "FATHER OF ALL DESTRUCTION: THE ROLE OF THE WHITE FATHER IN CONTEMPORARY POST-APOCALYPTIC CINEMA" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--English. 27.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/27
Included in
African American Studies Commons, American Film Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Visual Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons
