David Lynch’s American Dreamscape

How are David Lynch’s films as much in dialogue with literary and musical traditions as they are cinematic ones?

By interrogating this question, David Lynch’s American Dreamscape broadens the interpretive horizons of Lynch’s filmography, calling for a new approach to Lynch’s films that goes beyond cinema and visual art. It explores how Lynch’s work engages with literary and musical works that have shaped the American imagination. As much as Lynch stands as a singular artistic voice, his work arises from and taps into the cultural zeitgeist. This illuminates not only his approach to creativity but also the way works interact with each other in an age of mass media.

From children’s literature to teen tragedy ballads, Nathanael West and Cormac McCarthy to folk music and mixtapes, David Lynch’s American Dreamscape investigates the cultural frequencies Lynch’s films tune into. It positions Lynch’s work as a conduit for American popular culture, a medium or channel through which the subconscious of American life finds its way into full view.

The book expands upon this approach by discussing how artists such as David Foster Wallace and Lana Del Rey graft Lynch’s affiliative, cinematic sensibility onto their own projects. Reading their work as intertextual engagements with Lynch’s films further illustrates the versatile interactions among creators and audiences to generate more works, readers, and readings.