Description
Book SynopsisAge of Anxiety: Meaning, Identity, and Politics in 21st Century Film and Literature analyzes literature and films that speak to our age of anxiety resulting from the decline of narratives that provided individuals with a meaningful human life. The authors argue that the twentieth-century sought to free individuals from the constraints of authoritative cultural traditions and institutions, liberating the autonomous self. Yet this has given rise to anxiety rather than liberation. Instead of deriving one's sense of purpose from one's role and place within a community, the consumer has been deceived into thinking that their identity can be purchased through the meaning represented by the conspicuous consumption of a brand. The same phenomenon manifests itself in politics within recent populist revolts against globalist politics. In addition, the rapid pace of technological development is driving an unprecedented faith in the malleability of human beings, raises doubts as to what it means
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Anxieties of the Autonomous Self Section 1: Finding a Self in an Anxious Age Chapter 2: How Dressing for Dinner Can Save Your Sou Chapter 3: Kentucky Aristotelians In Space Section 2: Technology and the Unease of the Modern Self Chapter 4: Will You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? Chapter 5: Are You Even Human? Section 3: Replacing Anxiety with Hope Chapter 6: Faith Worth Fight For Chapter 7: Frodo, Won’t You be Neighbor Chapter 8: Healing the Anxiety of the Age
