Tracking the New World Order: Films, Frames, and Geopolitical Performance

In this article, Erving Goffman's frame analysis, a perspective normally associated only with face-to-face interaction, is applied to the macro sphere of social life in the context of the cold war's end and its representation in American film. Two macro-level frames—the American superiority frame and the cold war frame—are examined through the lens of Hollywood film. The cold war's sudden and unexpected end is considered as a variation on the Goffmanian frame break or “negative experience.” A parallel crisis of identity occurs in the cold war film genre, and an articulation of each anomic situation illuminates the other. In keeping with a macro-level interpretation of frame analysis, it is suggested that such a disruption leads to potential emergent creativity and that a reasonably modified version of frame analysis might usefully be applied in understanding future geopolitical performance.