Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Wes Anderson's Symbolic Universe is an academic investigation of what makes the films of Wes Anderson distinctive. Chapter by chapter, it relentlessly pulls apart each of Anderson's narratives to pursue the proposition that they all share the same deep underlying symbolic values - a common 'deep structure'. Taking the polemical strategy of outlining and employing Claude Levi-Strauss' distinguished (and notorious) work on myth and kinship to analyze each of Wes Anderson's films, Warren Buckland evaluates the entire Anderson oeuvre. With the help of Levi-Strauss, Buckland unearths the peculiar symbolic structure of each film, plus the circuits of exchange, tangible and intangible gift-giving, and unusual kinship systems that govern the lives of Wes Anderson's characters. He also provides a unique analysis of Wes Anderson's visual and aural style, identifying several distinctive traits of Anderson's mise en scene.