Assassination Nation, Young Female Anger and Futurity in the Wake of Trump’s America
“Don’t take your hate out on me, I just got here.” — Assassination Nation On 21 September 2018, Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation was released into American cinemas.[i] With its hyper-stylised neon party scenes, soundtrack of push notification pings and extreme violence, some critics were quick to dismiss the film as a ‘badly bungled attempt at social commentary’ with an objectifying gaze.[ii] However, these voices tended to overlook or belittle the central female characters’ Gen Z status and its significance in their angry retaliation against an adult-led reign of misogynistic violence. Positioned as an excuse to trivialise Levinson’s use of social media in his storytelling, the central characters’ youth is often taken-for-granted rather than appreciated as fundamental to the film’s depiction of female rage.[iii] This article reframes Assassination Nation’s portrayal of specifically teenage female anger as a political force; a force necessary for survival and for futurity. Set in the […]
Review: PG BAAS Conference – Connection and Collective Action: Past and Present (Online)
This year’s British Association of American Studies (BAAS) Postgraduate Symposium inspired speakers and attendees alike to trace instances of connection, collaboration and action across both today’s and yesterday’s America. Amidst the ongoing isolation for many in 2020, organisers Molly Becker (University of Cambridge) and Jennifer dos Reis dos Santos (Aberystwyth University) would have been hard-pressed to choose a more thoughtful and vital theme, or more insightful papers for the day’s proceedings. Indeed, in their welcoming remarks, the organisers commented that they intended for this year’s theme to be as “open to as many different realms of American Studies and diverse interpretations” as possible. The resulting cross-disciplinarity was apparent across the symposium’s three panels and keynote presentation, with topics ranging between school desegregation in 1930s small town America, the political significance of St. Patrick’s Day parades, and the intersectional possibilities of Twitter discourse. Additionally, the inclusion of a ‘Publishing Opportunities for […]