Resumen de Imagined Authority: Blackboard Jungle and the Project of Educational Liberalism
The 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle portrays the efforts of high school teacher Richard Dadier to overcome his students� resistance to the regime of the school At the same time, Blackboard Jungle inaugurated the use of rock and roll in movies, thereby heralding the emergence of a distinct youth culture. Representations of youth and schooling were uniquely suited to capture the anxieties that arose out of American familial, economic, and political conflicts in the 1950s. By synthesizing matters of male and state authority in an ambivalent blend of rebellion and social control, Blackboard Jungle articulated the ambiguities of the liberal ideology that schooling and the state more broadly could simultaneously insure individual freedom and contain social conflicts. Blackboard Jungle�s gendered narrative was mirrored in academic research into the causes of juvenile delinquency, in differing career paths for men and women educators, and in attacks on progressive curricula. By combining an examination of the film's narrative and visual technique with an analysis of its reception, this article explores the liberal ideology which has shaped American schooling
