Professor Kara McCormack will be presenting her work, “Home. Family. Future: Authenticity, the Frontier Myth, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” on Wednesday, 22 March, as part of the Humanities Seminar Series.

This work explores the ways Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) utilizes the meanings of the American frontier and wilderness to get at questions of authenticity and renewal. The film’s narrative is told from the perspective of nonhuman protagonists to allow for a reflection on humanity and those institutions grounded in traditional, conservative values: masculinity, family, and the natural world. By placing audience empathy squarely with the nonhuman primates – presented as the more authentic beings the imagined wilderness represents – the film is able to more clearly critique the human exploitation and greed that led to social catastrophe in the first place. The symbolic appeal of the frontier is ever present, with its promise of a translation of the self and society into something purer and more real.

Wednesday, 22 March
17.30-18.45
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This will be a hybrid event. Zoom information to come.