Neoliberal theory and film studies

Nostalgic Resignation:Working‐ClassCharacters in Neoliberal Film

“…Neoliberal cinema, defined as Hollywood films released between 1980 and 2010, in general, continues a turn away from class and other forms of social solidarity (Cooper 2019b;Kapur and Wagner 2011;Mazierska and Kristensen 2017). Characters became increasingly networked and individualized, with heroes framed as "entrepreneurs of the self" (Foucault 2008).…”

“…Hanhardt (2013) shows that this structure of provisional protection has, much like traditional heteronormativity, further marginalized queer and gender nonconforming people, especially when they are working‐class and of color. To explain this seeming paradox, Cooper (2019a), Brown (2015) and Duggan (2004) argue that the neoliberal “stealth revolution” was ushered in as part of a revanchist understanding of the “proper” role of women and the heterosexual family. According to them, masculinist hetero‐centrism underwrites neoliberal cultural projects that work to enshrine and stabilize structural inequality.…”

“…These changes, combined with the rise of knowledge‐based “producer services” in globalized city regions and low‐wage services generally, have transformed both the working class and the overall US class structure (Ikeler and Limonic 2018; Sassen 2001; Zweig 2011). Occurring broadly in the neoliberal period guided by an ethos of deregulation, free trade, privatization and entrepreneurialism (Cooper 2019a; Duménil and Lévy 2011; Harvey 2005), these shifts have been deeply entwined with others in race and gender (Cherlin 2014; Eisenstein 2009; Fraser 2013). Together, they have yielded a US working class more diverse, service‐centered and politically disempowered than it once was within a polarized overall class structure.…”

El rol del artista en el cine independiente actual: Nomadland como ejemplo cultural del realismo capitalista

“…Para Cooper (2019), el neoliberalismo es mucho más que una cuestión de economía: fundamentalmente altera configuraciones más antiguas del yo, la sociedad, la cultura, la estética y las relaciones entre ellas. Siguiendo esta línea de pensamiento, entendemos que Fern nunca se aleja del sistema capitalista que la película aparentemente critíca, ya sea en un contexto laboral, con su regreso a Amazon, como personal: al no poder seguir subsistiendo por sí sola en la carretera, solicita ayuda económica a sus familiares para continuar con su nomadismo.…”