Atlanta (FX, Donald Glover, 2016-), vers une transgression générique des frontières géographiques et sociales

Abstract

Known as a famous musician, actor, director, producer, Donald Glover highlights the fact that an open landscape can conceal various realities and existences. From its opening sequence, Atlanta (FX, 2016-) illustrates the co-existence of different spaces within this particular urban landscape through the use of a series of high-angle shots. The viewer instantly discovers the different identity borders that delimit and track the city of Atlanta. Shots of wealthy familial homes are juxtaposed to other shots of poor suburban areas without any dissolve. The cuts between these different views explicit the impossible communication between the different social groups evolving in these enclaves. In each episode, Donald Glover aims at detailing the social and racial complexity of the urban landscape. After having shot some conflictual spatial interstices, the showrunner oversteps the different borders that his protagonists daily face, through a noticeable generic hybridity and a creative freedom.

Keywords

• Atlanta
• space
• border
• frontier
• hybridity
• enclaves