Living, Again: Population and Paradox in Recent Cinema. Issue 1 (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Clavin, Keith
• Is Part Of: Oxford literary review. Volume 38:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 47
• Page End: 65
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: Books -- Reviews -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; 028.105
• DOI: 10.3366/olr.2016.0179
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-1498

Abstract

Abstract : The last several decades have witnessed a drastic increase in ecological writing, but also a substantial lack in regards to the discussion of human population control. This article argues that the deficiency has been reproduced within several recent examples of eco-cinema, Snowpiercer and Mad Max: Fury Road . Despite strong conservationist themes and narratives encouraging social revolution, the films encounter similar theoretical difficulties, and enact similar resulting absences, within their representational fields. As a consequence, the environmental topics are filtered through an anthropocentric lens that generates a set of paradoxes regarding human consumption, sacrifice and the visualisation of future sustainable states.