Political Claustrophobia in Lars von Trier’s Europa and America Trilogies

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2018.218

Keywords:

Lars von Trier, Europe Trilogy, America Trilogy, The Element of Crime, Epidemic, Europa, Dogville, Manderlay, Political claustrophobia, Humanism, Liberal reformism, Slavery

Abstract

This essay aims to trace the specific kind of political pessimism, that can be termed ‘political claustrophobia’ underlying the filmography of the Danish director Lars von Trier. Elements of this worldview are traced by analyzing two clusters of films categorized under Europa and America trilogies; namely, The Element of Crime, Epidemic, Europa, Dogville and Manderlay. Trier portrays a particularly bleak picture of the European civilization in the aftermath of the II World War. An equally claustrophobic outlook also characterizes his depiction of the life and relationships in American small towns during the 1930s. In both settings, attempts at reform and change are thwarted by entrenched social reality; leading the audience to the conclusion that there can be no political outside to the existing world.

Author Biography

Özlem Denli, İstanbul Gedik University

Department of Political Science and Public Administration

References

Atkinson, A. (2005). “On the Nature of Dogs, the Right of Grace; Forgiveness and Hospitality: Derrida, Kant, and Lars von Trier’s Dogville”, Senses of Cinema, 36.

Denli, Ö. & Köksal, S. (2017). “Avro-Amerikan Hegemonyası ve Avrupalı Bir Yönetmen Olarak Lars von Trier”, Folklor/Edebiyat, 23 (89), 147-178.

Galt, R. (2005). “Back Projection: Visualizing Past and Present Europe in ‘Zentropa’”, Cinema Journal, 45(1), 3-21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3661077

Greenberg, U. E. (2008). The Holocaust Repressed: Memory and the Subconscious in Lars von Trier’s Europa, Film & History: An Independent Journal of Film and Television Studies, 38 (1), 45-52.

Lloyd, V. (2008). Law, Grace, and Race: The Political Theology of Manderlay, Theory & Event, http://smjegupr.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/manderlay.pdf

Lund, C. (2010). “Europa (Zentropa) A Film by Lars Von Trier (1991)”, Film Criticism: Are the Hills Going to March Off ?

http://arethehillsgoingtomarchoff.blogspot.com/2010/01/europa-zentropa-film-by-lars-von-trier.html

Machiavelli, N. (1992). The Prince, New York: P.E.Collier & Son Company

Macpherson, C. B. (2011). The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rawls, J. (1993). Political Liberalism, Harvard: Harvard University Press.

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Published

2018-12-21

How to Cite

Denli, Özlem. (2018). Political Claustrophobia in Lars von Trier’s Europa and America Trilogies. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 7(1), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2018.218

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2018): Spring 2018

Section

Articles

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