Artists explored the dark places of the American experience during the seventies. After providing an overview of the rhetorical device allegory, Barthes''s concept of mythology and Foucault''s concept of power relations, the author establishes a connection between the works of art under discussion. The early seventies are represented by Wes Craven''s The Last House on the Left, Peter Watkins''s Punishment Park, and Hubert Selby, Jr.''s The Room. The late seventies are represented by Philip K. Dick''s A Scanner Darkly, Gustav Hasford''s The Short Timers and George A. Romero''s Dawn of the Dead.