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Grief, Madness, and Crises of Masculinity in Mind-Game Films
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Book Presentation:
This book analyzes a cycle of early twenty-first-century mind-game films and TV series in which male protagonists retreat into fantasies, dreams, or hallucinations as a means of coping with grief and guilt following the death of a loved one. Discussing films like Memento, Inception, and Shutter Island alongside the TV series Mr. Robot, among others, Rosalind Sibielski highlights how the construction of alternate realities allows the protagonists to work through bereavement and past trauma. Sibielski also argues that, as part of this process, the protagonists not only find themselves questioning their memories and what they believe to be true about their identities, but they are also forced to reevaluate who they are as men and the way that they define their manhood. Finally, Grief, Madness, and Crises of Masculinity in Mind-Game Films examines these stories of intersecting crises of reality and crises of masculinity within the context of millennial culture wars in the US over the way that manhood is, can be, or should be enacted.
About the Author:
Rosalind Sibielski is assistant professor of English and film studies at Rhode Island College
Press Reviews:
Positioned at the intersection of gender studies and film narratology, Rosalind Sibielski’s book contributes significantly to both disciplines. Its key argument – that mind-game films and TV series create male protagonists impaired by their perceived failure to live up to the values of patriarchal masculinity – is both provocative and perceptive. Sibielski offers commentary on the psychodramas of guilt and traumatic loss that drive the puzzle plots of Memento, Inception, Mr. Robot, and other compelling examples of mind-game storytelling.
-- Warren Buckland, editor of Puzzle Films (2009) and Hollywood Puzzle Films (2014)
See the publisher website: Lexington Books
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