Working Title. Representations of Identity and Postmodern Work in Mike Judge's "Office Space"

Bert Bobock

Sep 2015 · GRIN Verlag

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Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2013 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: "Office Space" recently gained cult status for its parody of the realities of postmodern work combined with a fundamental critique of late twentieth century forms of corporate management. Although it was filmed in 1999, and work conditions have since changed, paid occupational labor is more relevant for individual identity projects than ever. Office Space effectively presents the pressure created by contemporary forms of management and reveals the challenges companies and employees face in defining and finding a purpose for what exactly it is that “they do there”. The ability to narrate one's own life proves to be of great significance in an age of growing automation and heightened fears of unemployment, particularly regarding the concepts of (work-) time and space. Mike Judge’s satire depicts the shortcomings of a system subject to multiple radical changes such as individualization and the flexibilization of labor. These changes have a direct effect on the postmodern individual: They cause disorientation and drift, social disembedding, and altering human relationships in general.

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