American Popular Culture in the Era of Terror: Falling Skies, Dark Knights Rising, and Collapsing Cultures

Bringing together the most popular genres of the 21st century, this book argues that Americans have entered a new era of narrative dominated by the fear-and wish fulfillment-of the breakdown of authority and terror itself. * Provides an interesting new framework in which to examine popular culture * Examines films, television shows, and primary texts such as novels for evidence of cultural anxiety and a preoccupation with terror * Offers insightful and original interpretations of primary texts * Suggests possible conclusions about cultural anxiety regarding breakdowns of tradition and authority