“Everything I Think About Looks Like Here”: navigating the repercussions of neoliberal urban planning in Harmony Korine’s filmography
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Citation
Abstract
This thesis asserts that, by eschewing conventional narratives and traditional modes of psychological identification, Harmony Korine's films foreground their environments, rather than characters or narratives. Through the exploration of urban violence, adolescent ennui, and abject spaces, this thesis projects a critique of neoliberal urban planning to Korine’s filmography. While the structure of this project inherently embraces an auteur analysis given that this thesis focuses on the works of only one author. This thesis does not aim to suggest that the critique in my argument comes from Korine himself, but rather that this is an analysis projected onto the texts, partially given their openness, which allows for these latent criticisms to be applied to his works. This thesis repurposes Korine's filmography, through its distinct aesthetic style, medium, and reconstruction of normative modes of identification as well as realism, as a critique of contemporary neoliberal American urban landscapes.
Description
2025
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Attribution 4.0 International