JOURNAL ARTICLE

"A Big Old Summer House": Neoliberal "Myoptics" and Plantation Dynamics in The Big Chill.

  • Published In: Mississippi Quarterly, 2025, v. 77, n. 1. P. 95 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Underland, Will 3 of 3

Abstract

In retrospect, Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 film The Big Chill embodies much of what would come to define the neoliberal era. Drawing from discourse on the plantationocene and theories of visuality, I argue that the filming location, a former vacation home of a plantation owner, should be understood as integral to the film's ironic vision of a white neoliberal utopia. Insofar as the plantation unconsciously structures the social lives of the characters, and insofar as neoliberalism succeeds in denying or erasing the social sphere, neoliberalism obscures the plantation. Ultimately, I pronounce the film a subtle subversion of the then newly formed neoliberal world, a world pervaded and defined by the ideologically invisible plantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Mississippi Quarterly. 2025/01, Vol. 77, Issue 1, p95
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2025
  • ISSN:0026-637X
  • DOI:10.1353/mss.2025.a953924
  • Accession Number:183570006
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Mississippi Quarterly is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Looking to go deeper into this topic? Look for more articles on EBSCOhost.