Fac Ut Ardeat: Fire and Cinematic Resources as Socially Symbolic Elements in Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2025.e103560Keywords:
Literature and Film, Narrative Point of View, American Novel, Rachel Kushner, Social Symbolic ActAbstract
The hypothesis of this essay is that the novel “The Flamethrowers”, by Rachel Kushner (2013), has as its construction and style principles the adaptation, for the literary narrative, of a series of elements and cinematic techniques, as well as inserts as thematic content for the center of consciousness of the work the notion of base and superstructure. The analysis brings as reference the concept of literature as a socially symbolic act, by Fredric Jameson, as well as one of the many leitmotifs present in the book: the fire. I argue that the elements of construction and style are responsible both for the historical anchorage and for the representation, in the narrative layers, of late capitalism in its ability to encompass all spheres of life.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Luana Barossi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
