Possibilities in a Neoliberal World: Masculine Authority and Love in Affliction

[...]Wade embodies the negative counterexample to a proper neoliberal subject who is predominately defined in terms of economic success and personal aptitude, a particular kind of masculinity not necessarily aligned with muscle and brawn.2 But although Wade's actions at the end of the narrative...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of film and video 2017-10, Vol.69 (3), p.19-37
Main Author: Denton, Stacy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult children
Analysis
Anger
Boards of trustees
Cinema and Film Studies
Coburn, James
Communities
Dafoe, Willem
Economic liberalism
Entrepreneurship
Failure (Psychology)
Fathers
Film adaptations
Flashback
Free enterprise
Interpersonal relations
Love
Masculinity
Men
Motion Pictures
Neoliberalism
Nolte, Nick
Reading
Social impact
Socioeconomic factors
Towns
Women
Working class
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Summary:[...]Wade embodies the negative counterexample to a proper neoliberal subject who is predominately defined in terms of economic success and personal aptitude, a particular kind of masculinity not necessarily aligned with muscle and brawn.2 But although Wade's actions at the end of the narrative may be dismissed as an "isolated explosion of homicidal rage in a small American town" committed by a man who is not a neoliberal subject "like you and me," his brother Rolfe refuses to let the assumed reader's tendency to "forget all about it" erase the significance of his brother's actions (Banks 354). According to David Harvey, this uneven development occurs because "the globe never has been a level playing-field upon which capital accumulation could play out its destiny. [...]the ephemeral nature of such denigration becomes a presence of which one is always aware but is unable to directly pinpoint. [...]when a self-assured character such as Mel Gordon simply states, with a snap of the fingers, that he can have Wade fired "with just one phone call"-in contrast to the novel, all direct reference to Wade's country position omitted-it is a demonstration of power that is implicitly tied to the superiority of urban wealth over rural need. [...]our position becomes tied to LaRiviere's own machinations at the expense of the town, and the sentiment of Wade's critique, although ultimately lost in incoherent rage, becomes part of the assault against us.
ISSN:0742-4671
1934-6018
DOI:10.5406/jfilmvideo.69.3.0019