Abstract
The Introduction outlines the feelings of frustration and anger that have circulated in American political and popular culture during the first decades of the 2000s. This chapter argues that these feelings have formed a constellation of emotions revolving around a fantasy of refusing the entirety of the political and economic systems. The successful presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump is shown as exploiting these feelings. This chapter suggests the need to explore the way these feelings have circulated throughout popular cinema by tracing the affective echo of deep-seated political and cultural frustrations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“American’s Views of Government: Low Trust, but Some Positive Ratings,” (14 September 2020) Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/09/14/americans-views-of-government-low-trust-but-some-positive-performance-ratings/ (accessed 15 December 2020).
- 2.
L. Saad “Do Americans Like or Dislike ‘Big Business?’” (13 December 2019) Gallup News, https://news.gallup.com/poll/270296/americans-dislike-big-business.aspx (accessed 15 December 2020).
- 3.
G. Galvin, “Polling Shows Consistently Positive Views of Fauci,” (14 October 2020) Morning Consult, https://morningconsult.com/2020/10/14/fauci-covid-pandemic-approval-polling/ (accessed 15 December 2020).
- 4.
K. Karson, “Americans Willing to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine but Divided on Timing,” (14 December 2020). ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/americans-receive-covid-19-vaccine-divided-timing-poll/story?id=74703426 (accessed 15 December 2020).
- 5.
G. Hunter, “Trump is Molotov Cocktail You Can Throw on Crooked System,” October 23, 2016) USAWatchdog, https://usawatchdog.com/trump-is-molotov-cocktail-you-can-throwon-crooked-system-catherine-austin-fitts/ (accessed January 19, 2018).
- 6.
Z. Miller & J. Colvin “Trump Attacks Dr. Anthony Fauci,” Chicago Tribune (19 October 2020), https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-nw-trump-fauci-coronavirus-20201019-rofykxwrabcxdghjpa3r6tdjmu-story.html (accessed 15 December 2020).
- 7.
J. Mercieca (2020). Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump (College Station: Texas A&M University Press).
- 8.
See, for example: A. N. Heuman & A. González (2018). “Trump’s Essentialist Border Rhetoric: Racial Identities and Dangerous Liminalities.” Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Vol 47, No. 4, 326–342; K. H. Jamieson & D. Taussig. (2017). “Disruption, Demonization, Deliverance, and Norm Destruction: The Rhetorical Signature of Donald J. Trump.” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 132, No. 4, 619–650; J. C. Sanchez (2018). “Trump, the KKK, and the Versatility of White Supremacy Rhetoric.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, Vol 8, No. 1, 44–56.
- 9.
J. Gunn (2020). Political Perversion: Rhetorical Aberration in the Time of Trumpeteering (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), xi.
- 10.
L. M. Alcoff (2015). The Future of Whiteness (New York: Polity Press), 5.
- 11.
P. Sanders (2020). “Populism Discourse and ‘Trouble in Democracy:’ A Critical Approach.” In K. Bezio and G. Goethals, eds., Leadership, Populism, and Resistance (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing), 16.
- 12.
T. R. Gurr (2015). Political Rebellion: Causes, Outcomes and Alternatives (London: Routledge), 2.
- 13.
S. Yam (2016). “Affective Economies and Alienizing Discourse: Citizenship and Maternity Tourism in Hong Kong” Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Vol 46, No. 6, 411.
- 14.
J. D. Cisneros (2012). “Looking ‘Illegal’: Affect, Rhetoric, and Performativity in Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070.” In D. R. DeChaine (ed.), Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and Identity on the US-Mexico Frontier (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press), 137.
- 15.
M. Stuckey (2017). “American Elections and the Rhetoric of Political Change: Hyperbole, Anger, and Hope in U.S. Politics,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 4, 668.
- 16.
C. R. Kelly (2020). “Donald J. Trump and the Rhetoric of Ressentiment,” Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol, 106, No. 1, 4.
- 17.
Kelly, 20.
- 18.
M. Levina & K. Silva (2018). “Cruel Intentions: Affect Theory in the Age of Trump,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, 71.
- 19.
I am deeply grateful to Lisa Villadsen for bringing this connection to my attention. Her excellent talk at the Rhetoric Society of Europe was incredibly enlightening. L. Villadsen (2017) “Bartleby the Scrivener”: Affect, agency, and the rhetorical trickster.” Presented at Rhetoric Society of Europe conference, Norwich, UK.
- 20.
G. Deleuze (1998). “Bartleby; or, the Formula” in Essays: Critical and Clinical (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 70.
- 21.
K. Keeling (2019). Queer Times, Black Futures. (New York: NYU Press), 40.
- 22.
Y. Furui (2019). “Bartleby’s Closed Desk: Reading Melville Against Affect,” Journal of American Studies, Vol 0.43, No. 2, 361.
- 23.
M. Foucault (1986). “Of Other Spaces,” Diacritics, Vol. 16, No. 1, 27.
- 24.
R. Williams (2001). Long Revolution. (London: Broadview Press).
- 25.
K. R. Phillips (2005). Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture (Greenwood, CT: Praeger).
- 26.
C. R. Kelly (2016). Abstinence Cinema: Virginity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Purity in Contemporary Film. (Newark, NJ: Rutgers University Press), 19.
- 27.
See, for example, R. Barrios (1995), A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film (Oxford University Press); B. Biesecker, “Renovating the National Imaginary: A Prolegomenon on Contemporary Paregoric Rhetoric,” In K. R. Phillips (ed.), Framing Public Memory (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press), 212–247.
- 28.
W. Muensterberg (1985). “De Gustibus: Notes on the Genetics of Taste.” In Visible Religion: Annals of Religious Iconography (Leiden, NL: E. J. Brill), 3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Phillips, K.R. (2021). Introduction: Echoes of Refusal. In: A Cinema of Hopelessness . Rhetoric, Politics and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74136-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74136-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-74135-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-74136-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)