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Smoke gets in your eyes: re-reading gender in the "nostalgia film"

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 12:25 authored by Frances SmithFrances Smith
Upon its release, American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973) was much admired by critics and audiences alike. Yet, in subsequent years, the film became known for its supposed “flattening of history,” and celebration of patriarchal values. This article demonstrates that such a judgement owes much to Fredric Jameson’s historically contingent work on postmodernism, which argues that American Graffiti constitutes the paradigmatic nostalgia film. In contrast, using close textual analysis, I demonstrate that American Graffiti provides a more complex construction of the past, and of gender, than has hitherto been acknowledged. Far from blindly idealising the early 1960s, the film interrogates the processes through which the period and its gender relations come to be idealised. This article has consequences not only for our understanding of Lucas’ seminal film, but also for the American New Wave, and the “nostalgia” text.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Quarterly Review of Film and Video

ISSN

1050-9208

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

5

Volume

35

Page range

463-487

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-03-09

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-11-09

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-03-09

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