“Are You a Bad Boy?”: Variations of the American Adam in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet
2021; De Gruyter Open; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2478/genst-2022-0007
ISSN2286-0134
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoAbstract This paper mobilises R. W. B. Lewis’ myth of the American Adam, articulated in 1955, to examine David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet’s formulaic use of this masculinity archetype. Lewis’ ideal type of innocent masculinity is replicated by Blue Velvet’s protagonist, Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan), who must navigate the stereotyped conventions of good and evil against the backdrop of the idealised US suburb. Beyond the generalised assessment of David Lynch as the quintessential eccentric, this article brings to the fore the ways in which his work can be analysed as formulaic, paying special attention to the interaction between masculinity, spatiality, and dominant national mythology.
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