American Film Satire in the 1990s Hollywood Subversion

Satire is often defined as a moral and rhetorical art that engages in social critique through wit and ridicule. During its long history it has come in many forms and genres as well as in different types of media (verse, drama, rhetorical performance, prose, cartoons, journalism, film, TV, internet). Here, Nilsson examines American film satire produced during the 1990s and how its style and form cue viewers towards constructing satirical meaning. The study offers an explanation for how a particular selection of films turned material circulating in American culture of the 1990s into satirical experiences for viewers and finds that there are elements of resistance to mainstream culture in the original material: resistance to norms and conventions in politics, to mainstream news channels and Hollywood, and to official American history.

Johan Nilsson is Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences at Örebro University, Sweden, and Lecturer in American Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden.

1. The 1990s
2. Satire and Politics
3. Satire and the Media
4. Satire and History
5. American Film Satire