Le slogan « gated community »

Abstract

Gated communities are often referred to for what they seem to represent rather than for what they are – in fiction as well as in the theoretical discourse. They seem to embody the America Dream or the suburban nightmare at its climax. The distance between the ordinariness of the phenomenon and the vast imaginary it generates is obvious. This paper questions the nature of this distance: what happens between imaginary and reality? Beyond the analysis of the stories which depict gated communities, another way to address their connections with fiction is to question the expression "gated community" itself.

Keywords

• gated community
• advertising
• suburb
• american dream
• community
• real estate