Considering Alan Ball: Essays on Sexuality, Death and America in the Television and Film Writings
Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film American Beauty and creator of the HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball has consistently probed the cultural forces shaping gender, sexuality, and death in the United States. Through gritty dialogue and edgy humor, Ball centers much of his social critique on the illusory promises of the American Dream. For many of his characters, a belief in the American Dream-including idealized notions of the family, heterosexual norms, and the acceptance of...
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Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film American Beauty and creator of the HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball has consistently probed the cultural forces shaping gender, sexuality, and death in the United States. Through gritty dialogue and edgy humor, Ball centers much of his social critique on the illusory promises of the American Dream. For many of his characters, a belief in the American Dream-including idealized notions of the family, heterosexual norms, and the acceptance of prescribed gender roles-proves stifling and self-destructive. This is the first book to explore Ball's writings for theater, television and film, with an emphasis on his best-known work. These essays offer insight into both the captivating and problematic dimensions of Ball's work, while drawing connections among his diverse writings. An interview with Ball is included.
Sexuality, death, and the American dream in the works of Alan Ball : an introduction1An interview with Alan Ball17Good mourning, America : Alan Ball's American beauty23The space between us : the psychology of houses in American beauty33A heart caves in : the dangerous aesthetics of American beauty45"You have to develop an eye for it" : anti-aesthetic art in Alan Ball's vision70Meet the Chenowiths : the therapeutic drama of Six feet under86Strangers in blood : the queer intimacies of Six feet under107When we living awaken124Bridesmaids, bosoms, and booze : visibility and the veiling of conservatism139Always a bridesmaid, never a bride : the American dream in Five women wearing the same dress157AppWorks for theater, film and television173
