“They don’t control us”: ideologia nas cartas de Clancy em Trench (2018), à luz dos estudos culturais

Abstract

Literary works, beyond serving as entertainment, can also play as "distorting" mirrors, translating and incorporating thoughts and ideologies from the social and cultural context in which they are embedded. Twenty One Pilots is an American band that, through its audiovisual productions, tells stories that, situated in a historical context, convey the values of their time. In their narrative Trench (2018), the band tells the story of the character Clancy, who offers an internal perspective of the city of Dema, documenting his process of ideological awareness. Clancy, as both narrator and character, represents an individual who begins to question the oppressive system in which he lives. Throughout the letters, he recounts his critical awakening, his contact with the Banditos, and his attempt to escape, exposing fractures and contradictions in the dominant ideological structure. Given this context, this research aims to answer the following question: In what ways does Clancy question and reinforce the dominant ideology in the Trench (2018) letters through the lens of Cultural Studies? In order to address this question, the general objective is to investigate how Clancy questions and reinforces the dominant ideology in the Trench (2018) letters through Cultural Studies. To achieve this goal, the following specific objectives were established: (i) to discuss the theoretical assumptions of Cultural Studies with an emphasis on the concept of ideology; (ii) to identify how Clancy questions the dominant ideology; and (iii) to identify how Clancy reinforces the dominant ideology. Regarding the methodological approach, this is a qualitative study with an exploratory and interpretive character. As for the type of research, it is described as bibliographic. This work is grounded, among others, on the studies of Marilena Chauí (2025) and Raymond Williams (1983; 2011).