Linda Liu | Umass Boston (original) (raw)
Papers by Linda Liu
New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2021
A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relative... more A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relatively unexceptional protagonists in dystopian scenarios, thereby shifting the conventional focus of the genre from heroic action to small-scale personal and domestic dramas. This article argues that by juxtaposing issues of broader environmental degradation with more intimate private narratives of social reproduction, such films point to the limits of neoliberal austerity discourses that have become increasingly dominant since the 2008 economic crisis. Among these is "Advantageous" (dir./co-writ. Jennifer Phang, 2015), about the struggles of a middle-aged
single mother, Gwen Koh (Jacqueline Kim, also co-writ.), to raise her young
daughter Jules in a technocratic society characterized by rampant unemployment, feminist backlash, environmental ruin, and socioeconomic stratification. Using a blend of close textual analysis, genre study, and cultural critique, I argue that Phang’s film offers a timely vision of the ways in which mothers can be compelled to make drastic sacrifices for the upward mobility of their children. In combining the domestic tropes of maternal melodrama with the macroscopic concerns of dystopian
science fiction, "Advantageous" makes openings for an immanent critique of the strivings of virtuous neoliberal subjects in the face of eviscerated notions of social solidarity and collective purpose.
Many US horror films made within the last thirty years feature haunted real estate narratives inv... more Many US horror films made within the last thirty years feature haunted real estate narratives involving histories of land usurpation, territorial displacement, and other violence inflicted on socially marginalized groups. Insofar as the aftereffects of these histories recurrently manifest themselves in the form of spatial hauntings in such narratives, they can be said to resemble the workings of trauma whereby deeply disturbing past experiences continually disrupt the present. This essay argues that the Paranormal Activity film franchise (US, 2007–12) is animated less by the hermeneutics of social trauma structuring most haunted real estate films than by the free-floating anxieties attendant upon the financialization of postindustrial economies and exacerbated by the Great Recession. It theorizes that the franchise is symptomatic of a broader cultural exploration of an emergent recessionary imaginary and constitutes a contemporary horror subcycle wherein the well-worn idiom of trauma is replaced by more abstract and disembodied threats. In dialogue with Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff's concept of “occult economies,” this article explores the ways in which the franchise's found-footage aesthetic works together with the spatial dimensions of McMansions (single-family houses characterized by massive square footage totals) to generate a sense of fear with particular resonance for a contemporary culture characterized by financial speculation, increased privatization, and retrenchment of heteronormative ideals.
Conference papers by Linda Liu
SCMS 2017 Conference paper
Talks by Linda Liu
Shelter and Solidarity, 2020
A zoom/Youtube/Facebook presentation for Shelter and Solidarity on apocalyptic and dystopian lite... more A zoom/Youtube/Facebook presentation for Shelter and Solidarity on apocalyptic and dystopian literature in the time of Covid.
New Review of Film and Television Studies, 2021
A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relative... more A number of independent science fiction films released since the Great Recession feature relatively unexceptional protagonists in dystopian scenarios, thereby shifting the conventional focus of the genre from heroic action to small-scale personal and domestic dramas. This article argues that by juxtaposing issues of broader environmental degradation with more intimate private narratives of social reproduction, such films point to the limits of neoliberal austerity discourses that have become increasingly dominant since the 2008 economic crisis. Among these is "Advantageous" (dir./co-writ. Jennifer Phang, 2015), about the struggles of a middle-aged
single mother, Gwen Koh (Jacqueline Kim, also co-writ.), to raise her young
daughter Jules in a technocratic society characterized by rampant unemployment, feminist backlash, environmental ruin, and socioeconomic stratification. Using a blend of close textual analysis, genre study, and cultural critique, I argue that Phang’s film offers a timely vision of the ways in which mothers can be compelled to make drastic sacrifices for the upward mobility of their children. In combining the domestic tropes of maternal melodrama with the macroscopic concerns of dystopian
science fiction, "Advantageous" makes openings for an immanent critique of the strivings of virtuous neoliberal subjects in the face of eviscerated notions of social solidarity and collective purpose.
Many US horror films made within the last thirty years feature haunted real estate narratives inv... more Many US horror films made within the last thirty years feature haunted real estate narratives involving histories of land usurpation, territorial displacement, and other violence inflicted on socially marginalized groups. Insofar as the aftereffects of these histories recurrently manifest themselves in the form of spatial hauntings in such narratives, they can be said to resemble the workings of trauma whereby deeply disturbing past experiences continually disrupt the present. This essay argues that the Paranormal Activity film franchise (US, 2007–12) is animated less by the hermeneutics of social trauma structuring most haunted real estate films than by the free-floating anxieties attendant upon the financialization of postindustrial economies and exacerbated by the Great Recession. It theorizes that the franchise is symptomatic of a broader cultural exploration of an emergent recessionary imaginary and constitutes a contemporary horror subcycle wherein the well-worn idiom of trauma is replaced by more abstract and disembodied threats. In dialogue with Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff's concept of “occult economies,” this article explores the ways in which the franchise's found-footage aesthetic works together with the spatial dimensions of McMansions (single-family houses characterized by massive square footage totals) to generate a sense of fear with particular resonance for a contemporary culture characterized by financial speculation, increased privatization, and retrenchment of heteronormative ideals.
Shelter and Solidarity, 2020
A zoom/Youtube/Facebook presentation for Shelter and Solidarity on apocalyptic and dystopian lite... more A zoom/Youtube/Facebook presentation for Shelter and Solidarity on apocalyptic and dystopian literature in the time of Covid.