Files
Abstract
Mainstream films, TV shows, and magazines abound with representations of intelligence and intellectuals that question the political roles of academic professionals and the social capabilities of brilliant scholars. This project delves into these depictions of intellectuals as elitist and absent-minded by specifically investigating the overlapping discourses surrounding intellectualism involved in two recent mainstream films, Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester. If we take the intellectual within media representations as a model for public and political engagement, these films not only offer attractive incentives for apathy by normalizing intellectual aspirations in order to suit the fancy of media audiences, but they also cement popular insecurities toward any claim to specialized knowledge. Within media texts, the looming issue that this project highlights is the inability of our political atmosphere to stomach any notion of elite appeals to universal considerations. The normalization of the images of the highest forms of intellectualism in these films is a sign of a drastic dysfunction in popular culture when it comes to depictions of viable forms of intellectual occupations.