Date of Award
1990
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Communication Studies
Keywords
Cinema.
Supervisor
Selby, Stuart A.,
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This thesis applies ethnographic theories and methods, until recently reserved for the study of primitive and non-industrial culture, to a modern, industrial cultural product, David Lynch's 1986 film, Blue Velvet. It both describes and interprets the social action taking place within the film's constructed small town, Lumberton. The thesis provides an overview of some of the principal sources of the small town mythology of America, including films, television series, and the illustrations of Norman Rockwell. It shows how, within the American media, there has been a shift since World War II from the idealistic aesthetic of Rockwell and 1950's television towards a more satirical and realistic view of the American small town. Blue Velvet is a culmination of this process, resulting in a portrayal of a small town where the myth and the demythologized constantly interpenetrate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 30-03, page: 0408. Chairperson: Stuart A. Selby. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1990.
Recommended Citation
Dugdale, Timothy Edward, "Interpreting "Blue Velvet": A film ethnography of small town America inverted and possible extensions to small town Canada." (1990). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2486.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/2486