Related Papers
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 56
POST-APOCALYPTIC STRESS DISORDER IN THE LEFTOVERS
2021 •
Sonia Front
In Tom Perrotta's novel, The Leftovers (2011), and the TV series (2014-2017) based on the novel, 2% (140 million) of the world's population vanish into thin air. The event constitutes a temporal rift that divides history into Before and After and inaugurates a new mode of temporality, marked by a break with a clock-time-based economy and a yearning for the ultimate end. This new mode of temporality is accompanied by the shattering of the individual sense of being-in-time. The essay focuses on the altered experience of time both on individual and collective levels, a condition that constitutes a kind of post-apocalyptic stress disorder. The characters' reactions to the traumatic experience demonstrate that the inexplicability of the apocalyptic event and duration without closure are psychologically intolerable. As closure is impossible, they cannot work through the trauma, remaining trapped in the past event and the present anticipation of the ultimate annihilation while the future horizon becomes obliterated.
Modern Language Association Convention
The Individual and the Community in the Leftovers: An Ipsative Approach
2021 •
Kevin Kilroy
This paper follows Cattrysse in using an ipsative approach to explore The Leftovers as an adaptation. It argues that in changing the fundamental nature of the character of Kevin Garvey, Tom Perrotta and Damon Lindelof's adaptation of Perrotta's own work fundamentally changes the nature and meaning of the text from one that argues for a return to normalcy to one that suggests that it is impossible to do so.
WiN: The EAAS Women’s Network Journal Issue 2
Skin-Deep Gender: Posthumanity and the De(con)struction of the Feminine/Masculine Dichotomy in Westworld
2020 •
Amaya Fernández Menicucci
This article addresses the ways in which gender configurations are used as representations of the process of self-construction of both human and non-human characters in Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's series Westworld, produced by HBO and first launched in 2016. In particular, I explore the extent to which the process of genderization is deconstructed when human and non-human identities merge into a posthuman reality that is both material and virtual. In Westworld, both cyborg and human characters understand gender as embodiment, enactment, repetition, and codified communication. Yet, both sets of characters eventually face a process of disembodiment when their bodies are digitalized, which challenges the very nature of identity in general and gender identity in particular. Placing this digitalization of human identity against Donna Haraway's cyborg theory and Judith Butler's citational approach to gender identification, a question emerges, which neither Posthumanity Studies nor Gender Studies can ignore: can gender identities survive a process of disembodiment? Such, indeed, is the scenario portrayed in Westworld: a world in which bodies do not matter and gender is only skin-deep.
Reading Westworld
Factitive Maps: Manipulating Spaces and Characters in Vast Narratives
2019 •
Sara Casoli
TV/Series 14/2018
“Not much of a rind on you”: (De)Constructing Genre and Gender in Westworld (Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, HBO, 2016-)
This article explores the ways in which the TV series Westworld blurs gender and genre, creating resonances that deconstruct traditional notions of gender roles. Through a minute analysis of several key scenes in the first season, it examines how robots and humans construct gender both within the park and without, and then explores the question of masculine hegemony and feminine agency within those worlds. Finally, the article undertakes to point out how production and reception interact to create intertextual frameworks that can shed light on questions of gender construction.
Cuadernos de investigación musical
Damsels Un-distressed: Scoring Complex Women in HBO’s Westworld: The Maze (2016)
2022 •
Julin Lee
In the HBO series Westworld: The Maze (2016), two female characters, the “hosts” (androids) Dolores and Maeve, are not only compelling characters with whom the viewers engage with, they also subvert gender-bound tropes pervasive in the Western genre. This article will examine the role of the soundtrack in the construction and evolution of complex female characters in Westworld, giving due attention to Ramin Djawadi’s original compositions and how they interact with his piano arrangements of contemporary rock songs. Additionally, this article elucidates how the music constructs gender as a repeated, performed process by drawing on Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity. Beyond adding musical interest to the series, this article argues that the score sonically manifests the complex negotiations of gender and power that underlie Westworld’s first season.
TV/Series
Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers in Textual Seriality: Trauma, Resilience... Resolution?
2017 •
Charles Joseph
Cuadernos de investigación musical
Damiselas sin apuros. La composición de las mujeres complejas en Westworld: El laberinto (2016) de HBO
Julin Lee
En la serie de HBO Westworld: El laberinto (2016), dos personajes femeninos, las “anfitrionas” (androides) Dolores y Maeve, no solo son personajes convincentes con los que los espectadores se comprometen, sino que también subvierten los tropos de género omnipresentes en el género del western. Este artículo examinará el papel de la banda sonora en la construcción y evolución de los complejos personajes femeninos de Westworld, prestando la debida atención a las composiciones originales de Ramin Djawadi y a cómo interactúan con sus arreglos para piano de canciones de rock contemporáneas. Además, este artículo aclara cómo la música construye el género como un proceso repetido e interpretado, basándose en las teorías de Judith Butler sobre la performatividad del género. Más allá de añadir interés musical a la serie, este artículo argumenta que la partitura manifiesta sonoramente las complejas negociaciones de género y poder que subyacen en la primera temporada de Westworld.
Participations
The Author is Dead, Long Live the Author: Negotiating textual authority in Westworld, The OA and 13 Reasons Why
2021 •
Itay Harlap, Ariel Avissar
This paper examines the ways in which television imagines the relationship between creators and audiences in the contemporary media landscape. This is developed through an examination of the inaugural seasons of three American television dramas that debuted between October 2016 and March 2017: Netflix’s The OA and 13 Reasons Why and HBO’s Westworld; all three series featured the character of a storyteller who was killed within the narrative, in what was presented as an act of collaboration between the storyteller and their audience. We will question whether new participatory modes of media engagement truly engender ‘the birth of the viewer’ through a symbolic ‘killing’ of the creator, or merely serve to reaffirm the authority of the creator, reimagining the author-function as a powerful marketing brand.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)
Médiations Apocalyptiques : Imag(in)ing the Apocalypse
2019 •
Helene Machinal
