Abstract
This paper analyzes the representational significance of actor James Duval being cast as the central male leads in the various offerings of director Gregg Araki’s teen apocalypse trilogy: Totally F***ed Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995), and Nowhere (1997). It focuses on the significance of Duval’s relative anonymity as an actor at the time he was cast in these films in relation to the comparatively innocent and open-minded (by comparison to surrounding others) characters he plays. It begins by providing an overview of Duval’s evolving performance style as the films of the trilogy progress, articulating key attributes of his image and on-screen persona that contribute to a more open-minded perspective on queerness in various (and at times seemingly extreme) forms. It then proceeds to identify the wide range of queerness that exists within the three unique story worlds that Araki has created and to demonstrate how the characters Duval plays — enabled in large part by his distinctive early performance style — serve as relatively blank slates for encountering and reacting to queerness in its various forms. As a result, queerness is even more powerfully represented in the films of this trilogy because it is typically experienced and responded to, by Duval’s characters consistently, without prejudice or even firmly preconceived notions, providing many audience members with exposure to queer phenomena and ways of being that had largely been concealed from them in the history of cinematic imagery prior to the production and release of these three intriguing works.
Presenters
Kylo-Patrick HartProfessor and Chair, Film, Television and Digital Media, Texas Christian University, Texas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cinema, Film History, Image, Performance, Queerness, Representation
