Document Type
Article
Abstract
This paired set explores the experience of cultural identities constructed by and experienced through popular film. The essay “Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity” reflects the authors’ decades of residence in the state of Iowa and their personal irritation with the stereotypes that Hollywood regularly calls upon in evoking the American rural. We gained a new perspective on this sort of imagery when it surfaced again in Field of Dreams (1989) and The Bridges of Madison County novel (1992) and film (1995). Each of these films triggered unprecedented film tourism for the state. Through an exploration of these films and others such as State Fair (1933, 1945), The Music Man (1962), Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), and A Thousand Acres (1997), we clarify the kinds of identity most popular with national audiences and anchor it in nostalgia about an imagined simpler and happier past. We also reflect on the absences in this popular picture and describe representative patterns of consistency and selectivity of stereotypes for other regions of the country in Hollywood’s cultural cartography.
Repository Citation
Lawrence, John S., and Marty S. Knepper. "Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 5, no. 3, 2025, pp. 1–21. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol5/iss3/8
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Human Geography Commons, Place and Environment Commons
Comments
Includes an Appendix (Guide to Regional Portrayal in Films) in three parts: I) Regions of the United States; II) Individual States of the United States; and, III) National Cinemas.