Draft:The Genre of Collective Anxieties

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The genre of collective anxiety is defined as "the identifiable type of films" (or other forms of communications, such as literary productions, and arts) "that have the subject" or theme "of collective anxiety as their common" and most central "thematic convention" (AlMouslie, 2023, p. 39-40). [1][2]

In film studies, collective anxiety movies generally demonstrate cinematic representations of anxieties that are collectively experienced by most characters depicted in this genre's movies.

Characteristics[edit]

The storytelling technique is often multi-layered invoking in every layer existing collective anxieties that may be, among others, social, historical, religious, economic, or political.

The characters are driven into different forms of collective wars that can take different forms and have different motives. Accordingly, the films frequently have ensemble casts that act out these collective anxieties.

Aesthetically, collective anxiety films frequently incorporate aesthetic conventions borrowed from other cinematic genres such as Westerns, horror, action, thriller, noir, war movies, science fiction, etc. This makes hybridization one of the leading characteristics of the collective anxiety genre.

When it comes to narrative techniques, the manifestations of collective anxieties are acted out, among others, through the film's storyline and its underlying narrative imaginations, which include existing myths, ideologies, and other cinematic genres.

Thematically, collective anxiety films often depict dystopian narratives and demonstrate collective anxieties that are predominantly induced by major internal or external threats affecting most of the characters depicted in films belonging to this genre. The theme of savage wars, which is originally found in the Western genre, is predominantly present in collective anxiety movies. Furthermore, the films may also include discursive intertextual references to other movies, literary works, or anxious episodes in history.

Ideologically, collective anxiety films often demonstrate conflicting ideologies and rely on existing myths such as the myth of the American Dream and the Frontier myths including the myth of savage wars.[3] Collective anxiety films often engage in existing anxious political debates and discourses and echo the anxieties of their respective eras.

Examples of Collective Anxiety Movies[edit]

- The Purge: Election Year (2016), Universal Pictures, directed by James DeMonaco - Crash (2004), Lions Gate Films, directed by Paul Haggis - The Brave One, Warner Bros. Pictures, directed by Neil Jordan - The Company Men, The Weinstein Company, directed by John Wells

References[edit]

  • Rabya AlMouslie, The Cinema of Anxieties: Rethinking Collective Anxieties as a Genre in Post-9/11 Hollywood Movies, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2023
  1. ^ AlMouslie, Rabya (2023). The Cinema of Anxieties: Rethinking Collective Anxieties as a Genre in Post-9/11 Hollywood Movies (PDF). Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University of Berlin.
  2. ^ Rabya AlMouslie, The Cinema of Anxieties: Rethinking Collective Anxieties as a Genre in Post-9/11 Hollywood Movies, Humboldt University of Berlin, 2023
  3. ^ Slotkin, Richard (1973). Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860. Wesleyan University Press.

Further Sources[edit]

  • Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600–1860 (Wesleyan University Press, 1973)
  • Richard Slotkin, Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier in the Age of Industrialization, 1800–1890, (Atheneum, 1985)
  • Richard Slotkin, Gunfighter Nation: Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America, (Atheneum, 1992)
  • Douglas Kellner, Cinema Wars: Hollywood Films and Politics in the Bush-Cheney Era, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
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