Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research

Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research

“I Want to Know What Love is” -Fucking Åmål: The Mediascapes and Rhizomes of American Influences in Scandinavian Film at the Millennium

Author:

Elizabeth Alexander

Mentor:

Arne Lunde, Assistant Professor of Scandinavian studies, University of California Los Angeles

The objective of this paper is to analyze the supposed Americanization of Scandinavian film at the millenium using the Swedish film Fucking Åmål (1998) as a example of this phenomenon. Considering the philosophical concept of “rhizomes” developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I attempt to visualize culture in this film to be a rhizomatic structure that has interlinked several cultures to form Hollywood’s culture. As Hollywood’s culture linked several cultures to one node, this node has branched out and propagated. The heterogeneous and multiplicitous nature of rhizomes, applied to culture, demonstrates how culture is non-static and always transforming. Today Scandinavian youth is more receptive to new cultural influences because of the presence of mediascapes. These mediascapes have allowed importation and exportation of cultural information within Americans and Scandinavians that can be seen in Fucking Åmål’s misé in scene through the placement of cultural artifacts. Lukas Moodysson, Fucking Åmål’s director, has stated in interviews that the cultural artifacts placed in the film are a critique of the Americanization of the Swedish youth. However, there are some similarities between Lukas Moodysson’s Fucking Åmål and the John Hughes’ coming-of-age movies. So even though Moodysson tries to make a critique of Americanization, he himself has become a victim of the mediascapes at channeling to Hughes’ work. Yet Moodysson establishes Fucking Åmal as a coming-of-age film that treats new thematics not explored by Hughes such as homosexuality and cultural influences. The aim of this paper is to explore the rhizomatic structure of Americanization within the film and its impact in present Scandinavian culture.


Presented by:

Elizabeth Alexander

Date:

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Time:

8:30 AM — 8:45 AM

Room:

Bell Tower 1704

Presentation Type:

Oral Presentation

Discipline:

English Literature
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