Structural Integrity, Historical Reversion, And The Post-9/11 Chick Flick

摘要

This article examines a set of post-9/11 Hollywood romantic comedies, arguing that these films innovate the genre by setting aside the light-hearted urban romanticization so characteristic of the form in favor of an anxious preoccupation with structural, national and gender stability. In keeping with the highly traditionalist discursive climate in the period of their release, Maid in Manhattan, Two Weeks' Notice, and How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days seek to reinforce conservative conceptions of masculinity and femininity through themes of historical reversion, postfeminist female retreatism, the (re)masculinization of moral, cultural and financial authority and the primacy of “family values.” Given recent events, it's no wonder that Hollywood's filmmakers have turned New York into the romantic-comedy capital of the world. (Jamie Russell 2003)