THE CANVAS AND THE MAZE. Deconstructing the Wall and the Frontier in Contemporary American Science Fiction
THE CANVAS AND THE MAZE. Deconstructing the Wall and the Frontier in Contemporary American Science Fiction

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses how Denis Villeneuve’s movie „Arrival” (2016) and the TV series „Westworld” (2016) challenge the evocative symbol of the wall and the myth of the American frontier by turning them respectively into a canvas, conceived as the primal source of communication between two cultures, and a maze, metaphorically alluding to the search for new, inner spaces. Both works express the need for new forms of introspection and interaction with the Other, giving the individual the chance to wander through visionary predictions of the future and hallucinatory mirages of the past, and to re-build his/her own self-narrative.

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