The End of the Good Life: Literary Representations of Suburbia and the American Nightmare

  • Joanna Wilson University of Edinburgh

Abstract


Conventional literary and filmic representations of the American suburbs depict a space that is either middle-class idyll or claustrophobic vacuum. By engaging with suburban gothic literature, this article interrogates such portrayals and deconstructs the utopian conception of suburbia. I argue that, rather than representing the "good life", the suburbs in these texts are sites of deeply-rooted cultural anxieties.
Published
01-Jun-2015
How to Cite
Wilson, Joanna. 2015. “The End of the Good Life: Literary Representations of Suburbia and the American Nightmare”. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & The Arts, no. 20 (June). https://doi.org/10.2218/forum.20.1279.