From Pastoral Gardens to Weatherworn Wastelands - On the Tracks of Nature in Beasts of the Southern Wild
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2020-10-06
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en
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Abstract
From an American Studies perspective, this thesis explores how Benh Zeitlin’s independent
film Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) constructs discourses surrounding nature and in what
way these discourses are linked to specific ideological beliefs and convictions. With the help
of Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, the three chapters dive into American
pastoralism and American environmentalism as key discourses that can be extracted from the
filmic text. The first chapter focuses on the romanticized natural landscape created in the film,
interpreting the characters’ beloved village ‘Bathtub’ as a visual representation of the myth of
the garden which is so central in American pastoralism. Moving from the movie’s setting to
its characters, the second chapter scrutinizes one of the main characters (Wink) who embodies
the pastoral yeoman farmer figure that was historically praised as a national American
symbol. Finally, the third chapter foregrounds the American environmental discourse,
focusing on questions of race as well as the greater sociocultural meaning of the devastating
hurricane that is at the center of attention in Beasts of the Southern Wild. Collectively, all
chapters conclude that BSW creates an image of nature that intends to raise environmental
awareness and which needs to be understood as a commentary on American society that is
constantly evolving throughout the progression of the film.
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