"And Your Days Are Just About Over": Escaping the Outlived Era in Pulp Fiction and the Later Films of Quentin Tarantino

Abstract

Abstract: This essay argues that Pulp Fiction (1994) is a foundational text for Tarantino's recurrent explorations of awakening to—and trying to control the outcomes of—outliving one's era, especially when "one's era" is defined by a shared aesthetic, identity, code, and sense of purpose. Tarantino's characters cannot grasp the totality of their defining eras until signs indicate its eminent demise, at which point they face the existential crisis of wondering if their vocations allow any opportunities for escape. As a means of analyzing the "outlived era" in Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill (2003-2004), and Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (2019), this essay also explores how Tarantino's metafictional engagement with film history and counterfactual rewriting of history allows his characters a means of transcending their eras.