Radical Critique and Progressive Traditionalism in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath 1

This essay explores the radical critique of capitalism offered by John Ford's film, The Grapes of Wrath. Building on E.P. Thompson's notion of 'radical traditionalism', I argue that Ford offers an economically radical critique of capitalism based upon the symbolic resources of patriarchy and racial exclusion. In order to understand the social impact of Ford's cinema, I reconstruct the symbolic and semiotic resources of the laboring community during the late 1930s, relying upon labor histories and community and cultural studies of the period. After examining those semio-social resources, I argue that Ford's work was both re-made by its times and contributed to the formation of a kind of 'working class consciousness' in American cinema. I conclude by offering suggestions concerning the limits of solidarity produced by this radical economic critique based in a symbolic traditionalism

Aesthetics · Art history · Capitalism · Class consciousness · Humanities · Movie theater · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Solidarity · The Symbolic · Traditionalism · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics

• The Corporate Imaginary in John Ford's New Deal Cinema

  Open Access•Graham Cassano•Rethinking Marxism•2009

  Incluir item

• Hollywood, Bike Messengers, and the New Economy

  Open Access•Jeffrey L Kidder•Critical Sociology•2016

  Incluir item

• Working Class Self-Fashioning in Swing Time (1936)

  Open Access•Graham Cassano•Critical Sociology•2014

  Incluir item

• Race-Making and the Garrison State

  Open Access•Graham Cassano•Critical Sociology•2009

  Incluir item

• State of the Union

  Nelson Lichtenstein•State of the Union•2012

  Incluir item

• The cultural front

  Michael Denning•The cultural front•1998

  Incluir item

• The ‘Labor Question’

  Steve Fraser•Rise and Fall of the New Deal…•2020

  Incluir item

• For All These Rights

  Jennifer Klein•For All These Rights•2010

  Incluir item

• Cultures of Solidarity

  Rick Fantasia•Cultures of Solidarity•2019

  Incluir item

• Working-Class Americanism

  Gary Gerstle•Working-Class Americanism•2002

  Incluir item

• The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980

  Steve Fraser, Gary Gerstle•Rise and Fall of the New Deal…•1990

  Incluir item

• Making a New Deal

  Open Access•Lizabeth Cohen•Making a New Deal•2008

  Incluir item

• Engendering Culture

  Erika Do, Erika Doss et al.•Woman s Art Journal•1994

  Incluir item

• The Corporate Imaginary in John Ford's New Deal Cinema

  Open Access•Graham Cassano•Rethinking Marxism•2009

  Incluir item

• Americanization from the Bottom Up

  James R Barrett•Journal of American History•1992

  Incluir item

• Community of Suffering and Struggle

  Camille Guerin-Gonzales, Elizabeth Faue•The Journal of Interdisciplinary…•1994

  Incluir item

• Customs in Common

  H W Arthurs, Edward P Thompson•University of Toronto Law Journal•1993

  Incluir item

• The Radicalism of Tradition

  Craig Calhoun, Craig Jackson Calhoun•American Journal of Sociology•1983

  Incluir item