A main objective of The Simpsons series seems to be to take every day issues and world events as a part of its stories and to deal with them in a satirical way. While it also concerns itself with apparently banal issues like popular movies or bands, war, politics or nuclear power do not make an exception in the series’ content.
Mick Broderick points out, that “while many episodes ostensibly do not touch on nuclear themes, the ever- present influence and immanence of the atomic age pervades The Simpsons like a thematic half- life whose motifs contaminate the multi- layered, intertextual narratives of each episode, often as satire.”
At this background, Anne Washburn’s decision to take The Simpsons, of all things, as the one part of popular culture that survives inside the people’s memories throughout a nuclear apocalypse, seems even more peculiar and ironic. But that’s just what happens in Washburn’s “Mr. Burns – A post- electric play”. The electric grid is destroyed and people have to adapt to a world without telephones, television, electric stoves or radiators. They have to revert to older ways of engagement, like storytelling, but instead of higher literature they reminisce about parts of popular culture everyone remembers.
The following paper therefore will analyse Anne Washburn’s play in regard to the way popular culture is represented in her post- apocalyptic world. Why is it important and why is The Simpsons Washburn’s main representative of contemporary popular culture in the play? And, moreover, in which ways does the representational form of popular culture change throughout it?
Table of Content
Introduction
Popular Culture and the play as such
Popular Culture and its importance in modern times
The use of The Simpsons as representatives of Popular Culture
The dystopic setting of Mr. Burns, A post- electric play.
The depiction of Popular Culture in the play
Popular Culture as diversion from reality
Popular Culture as livelihood: Theatre Companies
Commercials
Music and Popular Culture
Popular Culture merged with reality
Conclusion
References
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