“Culture of Fear”
Bildiriler > Özet Bildiri · 2011
Yazarlar: Olena BOYLU
13th International Cultural Symposium: Change and Challenge, Türkiye, İzmir, Uluslararası, Sözlü Sunum, Özet Bildiri, 2011-2011, ss 113-113
Özet
<p>The first decade of the 21st century in the literary world was marked by another splash of the gothic genre that spreads its roots to the 18th century. Vampires, werewolves, angels and shape shifters became the trend characters which were consumed not only through novels but also via television series and Hollywood movies. Only <em>Twilight</em> series sold one hundred million copies in five years so it became impossible to ignore such social phenomenon. Concentrating on the American reader and culture this paper is going to analyze the possible changes in the society that could probably become the reasons for such a notion because if we would pass classical reasons like millennium fears and personal anxieties these gothic products may reflect much deeper fears that may lay in the base of the contemporary American public. Here it will be analyzed whether it is a Marxian image of the Capitalistic system as a vampire or Michael Moore’s “culture of fear” that according to this filmmaker is a common characteristic for the American society which is constantly under the pressure for national and personal security. Or maybe it is a kind of escapism from the real world that gradually turns to be difficult to cope with in the new century. So this challenge of the supernatural towards the human race may reflect not only the psychological state but also cultural and even political agendas of the country and explain some significant sociological facts.</p>