Through Alien “Eyes”: Spectacle Mediating Nonhuman Agency in Nope (2022)
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Date
2024-01-10
Authors
Gekiere, Kathleen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
As horse trainers, a former child star and a mysterious UFO clash in the Agua Dulce desert, Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022), replete with nonhuman actors, presents a generative model for considering the possibilities and constraints of non-human representations within media. Weaving frameworks established by Derrida, De Bord and Benjamin, I analyze the ways in which nonhuman beings are shaped and molded into images for consumption, as well as their resistance to this control. As the forces of Hollywood production clash with the gazes of nonhuman beings, Nope points toward avenues to disrupt the aesthetically captivating distractions of capitalism and the destructive impulses they inspire, highlighting the possibilities of nonhuman agents as forces of disruption and interruption of systems of exploitation.
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Keywords
Ecocriticism, Film Studies, Nonhuman beings, Representation, Science Fiction, Spectacle