| Feminism has all too often been reified as a theoretical category. Specifically, Marxist critical categories fail to account for the integral importance of gender in any sociopolitical critique. This dissertation attempts to dereify gender and demonstrate a theoretical model that seamlessly integrates psychoanalysis, Marxism, and feminism. Conspiracy culture in America since World War II is an ideal aperture through which we may envision such a theoretical approach, and indeed see the critical need for such an approach. This dissertation looks at several post-war American conspiracy narratives, including Oliver Stone's JFK and Nixon, Don DeLillo's Libra, Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe, John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, several novels by Philip K. Dick, and Fox Broadcast Network's The X Files. Through this study of conspiracy culture we see the post-war construction of masculinity and its connections to economic structures. |
