Clerks - 'Over the Counter' Culture and Youth Cinema

This study of Kevin Smith-s debut film breaks new ground by exploring how Clerks sits at the intersection of political and cultural trends relevant to alternative youth cultures in the early 1990s.

Clerks (1994) was born of and appeals to a specific youth subculture, with the multimedia -View Askewniverse- developing out of the film-s initial release. Drawing on existing texts and movements such as Richard Linklater-s Slacker (1991), Douglas Coupland-s novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture and alternative rock subcultures that had developed during and since the 1980s, the film presents a comedic take on working as a young person in 1990s America in a manner that was praised for its authenticity. Filmed on a miniscule budget, the roughness of the film-s aesthetic, combined with a hard rock soundtrack comprised of mostly independent bands, convinced many that it could speak for young Americans, much more than polished, corporate