Generation Anxiety: Preface

Abstract

Using Søren Kierkegaard’s formative writing from The Concept of Anxiety as a catalyst for thinking about the multiplicity and complexity of anxiety, the preface of this Special Issue of Film Matters outlines how the editorial board at Chapman University thought about the topic “Generation Anxiety” throughout the editorial process. Considering anxiety as an embodied, sensuous, and ambiguous experience, this issue discusses films from varied genres, time periods, and countries, diverse perspectives and frameworks, and distinct explorations and experiences of anxiety. Finally, the preface acknowledges that there is no one definition of “Generation Anxiety,” but that through undergraduate scholars’ work, a contemporary perspectives on this ambiguous emotion emerges.