Presenters
Abstract
This presentation examines American boyhood as constructed in two Academy Award winning films: “Too Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) and “Sling Blade” (1996). These films are heavily influenced by the literary genre of Southern Gothic—a genre steeped in explorations of madness, social decay, dark humor, and the supernatural. At the center of each of these movies is a man damaged in childhood and stuck in eternal boyhood (Karl in “Sling Blade” and Boo Radley in “Mockingbird”) who befriends and protects an endangered boy on the brink of adulthood (Frank and Jem respectively). Using the theoretical frameworks of both Childhood Studies and Disability Studies I explore how these Southern Gothic film characterize mental disability and how that characterization propels the development of a protagonist both darkly comic and tragic. I will also examine how the relationship between the child/men (Karl and Boo) and children (Frank and Jem) serves as a commentary on American constructions of manhood, fatherhood, and boyhood.