PRESERVATION HYPERREALITY EXAMINING THE IDEOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN AMERICAN CINEMA
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Date
2022-06
Authors
Ause, Carter W.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This terminal project examines the ideological representation of historic preservation found within American narrative films, and how such cinematic narratives compare with the current privatist paradigm of American preservation practice. While the field of historic preservation and film studies have a sizable track record of tackling subjects such as architecture, ideology, and memory studies, both fields have yet to compile comprehensive studies examining the methods by which preservation is represented to the general public. Referring to the work of preservation scholar Christopher Koziol, this study determines a quantitative ideological commonality among twelve American preservation-themed films, as well as a qualitative, historical-interpretive, formalist examination of three films representing three ideological depictions of preservation. Upon further examination, this study found populism to be the most common ideological trend among American preservation-themed films, with only two out of twelve films selected having diverged from the predominant populist trend. Additionally, the American preservation-themed films with the widest range of cultural representation included the two films diverging from the predominant populist trend. This study determined that none of the twelve films examined in this study exalted a privatist message akin to the current state of the American preservation field. In short, the American cinematic representation of preservation offers a false depiction of how the American system of preservation actually works, thereby imprinting a simulacrum, or false image, upon the imagination of the American public. As long as the American public believes in this simulacrum, they will continue to unintentionally foster misguided impressions that naively negate how the preservation field has intertwined itself with privatist modes of real-estate speculation, housing policy, revitalization, and economic development. Acknowledging this fact does not discount the original progressive intentions that birthed the American preservation field in the 1960s. Rather, the predominantly populist milieu of American preservation-themed cinema is a reflection of a deeper American desire to have underrepresented communities, marginalized histories, person-oriented streetscapes, and unique cultural landscapes preserved for the benefit of every citizen. In this way, we should think of American preservation-themed cinema as a guide to the future rather than a simple hindrance to, or distraction from, the present privatist paradigm.
Description
138 pages
Keywords
Historic Preservation, Preservation, Cinema, American Cinema