Life on the edge. Places and landscapes of trauma in provincial films and series directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

Abstract

The town of Wind Gap in the “Deep South” of the United States, Dallas in Texas, Monterey in California and the suburbs of Montreal in films and series by Jean-Marc Vallée are real and geographical locations related to historical, authentic events. They are also symbolic places and landscapes, built up by American mythology or European tradition. Each of them is associated with the trauma experienced by the characters and create a coherent vision of locality, which is analysed in the key concept of trauma, cited by Freud and Nietzsche, Melanie Klein’s psychoanalytic concepts, as well as numerous cultural references through which it can be read.