Download or read book The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films written by Donald E. Palumbo and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-19 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century, Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces is an elaborate articulation of the monomyth: the narrative pattern underlying countless stories from the most ancient myths and legends to the films and television series of today. The monomyth's fundamental storyline, in Campbell's words, sees "the hero venture forth from the world of the common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons to his fellow man." Campbell asserted that the hero is each of us--thus the monomyth's endurance as a compelling plot structure. This study examines the monomyth in the context of Campbell's The Hero and discusses the use of this versatile narrative in 26 films and two television shows produced between 1960 and 2009, including the initial Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983), The Time Machine (1960), Logan's Run (1976), Escape from New York (1981), Tron (1982), The Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), the first 11 Star Trek films (1979-2009), and the Sci Fi Channel's miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune (2000) and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003).
Download or read book Science Fiction and Futurism written by Ace G. Pilkington and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science and science fiction have become inseparable--with common stories, interconnected thought experiments, and shared language. This reference book lays out that relationship and its all-but-magical terms and ideas. Those who think seriously about the future are changing the world, reshaping how we speak and how we think. This book fully covers the terms that collected, clarified and crystallized the futurists' ideas, sometimes showing them off, sometimes slowing them down, and sometimes propelling them to fame and making them the common currency of our culture. The many entries in this encyclopedic work offer a guided tour of the vast territories occupied by science fiction and futurism. In his Foreword, David Brin says, "Provocative and enticing? Filled with 'huh!' moments and leads to great stories? That describes this volume."
Download or read book The Science Fiction Mythmakers written by Jennifer Simkins and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A literary genre that pervades 21st-century popular culture, science fiction creates mythologies that make statements about humanity’s place in the universe and embody an intersection of science, religion and philosophy. This book considers the significance of this confluence through an examination of myths in the writings of H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert. Presenting fresh insights into their works, the author brings to light the tendency of science fiction narratives to reaffirm spiritual myths.
Download or read book Saving the World Through Science Fiction written by Michael R. Page and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-02-28 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the major figures in science fiction for more than sixty years, James Gunn has been instrumental in making the genre one of the most vibrant and engaging areas of literary scholarship. His genre history Alternate Worlds and his The Road to Science Fiction anthologies introduced countless readers to science fiction. He founded the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in 1982. But Gunn has also been one of the genre's leading writers. His classic novels Star Bridge (with Jack Williamson), The Joy Makers, The Immortals and The Listeners helped shape the field. Now in his nineties, he remains a prominent voice. His forthcoming novel is Transformation. Drawing on materials from Gunn's archives and personal interviews with him, this study is the first to examine the life, career and writing of this science fiction grandmaster.
Download or read book Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television written by Tom Powers and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-10-14 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subjects of this book constitute a significant cross section of BBC science fiction television. With such characters as the Doctor (an enigmatic time-traveling alien), Kerr Avon (a problematic rebel leader), Dave Lister (a slovenly last surviving human) and Captain Jack Harkness (a complex omnisexual immortal), these shows have both challenged and reinforced viewer expectations about the small-screen masculine hero. This book explores the construction of gendered heroic identity in the series from both production and fan perspectives. The paradoxical relationships between the producers, writers and fans of the four series are discussed. Fan fiction, criticism and videos are examined that both celebrate and criticize BBC science fiction heroes and villains.
Download or read book The Fantastic in Holocaust Literature and Film written by Judith B. Kerman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-19 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When reality becomes fantastic, what literary effects will render it credible or comprehensible? To respond meaningfully to the surreality of the Holocaust, writers must produce works of moral and emotional complexity. One way they have achieved this is through elements of fantasy. Covering a range of theoretical perspectives, this collection of essays explores the use of fantastic story-telling in Holocaust literature and film. Writers such as Jane Yolen and Art Spiegelman are discussed, as well as the sci-fi television series V (1983), Stephen King's novella Apt Pupil (1982), Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Martin Scorsese's dark thriller Shutter Island (2010).
Download or read book A Concise Companion to American Studies written by John Carlos Rowe and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-02-12 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to American Studies is an essential volume that brings together voices and scholarship from across the spectrum of American experience. A collection of 22 original essays which provides an unprecedented introduction to the "new" American Studies: a comparative, transnational, postcolonial and polylingual discipline Addresses a variety of subjects, from foundations and backgrounds to the field, to different theories of the “new” American Studies, and issues from globalization and technology to transnationalism and post-colonialism Explores the relationship between American Studies and allied fields such as Ethnic Studies, Feminist, Queer and Latin American Studies Designed to provoke discussion and help students and scholars at all levels develop their own approaches to contemporary American Studies
Download or read book J R R Tolkien Robert E Howard and the Birth of Modern Fantasy written by Deke Parsons and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-14 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The birth of modern fantasy in 1930s Britain and America saw the development of new literary and film genres. J.R.R. Tolkien created modern fantasy with The Lord of the Rings, set in a fictional world based upon his life in the early 20th century British Empire, and his love of language and medieval literature. In small-town Texas, Robert E. Howard pounded out his own fantasy realm in his Conan stories, published serially in the ephemeral pulp magazines he loved. Jerry Siegel created Superman with Joe Shuster, and laid the foundation for perhaps the most far-reaching fantasy worlds: the universe of DC and Marvel comics. The work of extraordinary people who lived in an extraordinary decade, this modern fantasy canon still provides source material for the most successful literary and film franchises of the 21st century. Modern fantasy speaks to the human experience and still shows its origins from the lives and times of its creators.
Download or read book Fantasy Literature and Christianity written by Weronika Łaszkiewicz and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debate surrounding the Christian aspects of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter has revealed not only the prominence of religious themes in fantasy fiction, but also readers' concerns over portrayals of religion in fantasy. Yet while analyses of these works fill many volumes, other fantasy series have received much less attention. This critical study explores the fantastic religions and religious themes in American and Canadian works by Stephen R. Donaldson (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant), Guy Gavriel Kay (Fionavar Tapestry), Celia S. Friedman (Coldfire Trilogy), and Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn). References to biblical tradition and Christian teachings reveal these writers' overall approach to Christianity and the relationship between Christianity and the fantasy genre.
Download or read book The Last Midnight written by Leisa A. Clark and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-09-28 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you find yourself contemplating the imminent end of the world? Do you wonder how society might reorganize itself to cope with global cataclysm? (Have you begun hoarding canned goods and ammunition...?) Visions of an apocalypse began to dominate mass media well before the year 2000. Yet narratives since then present decidedly different spins on cultural anxieties about terrorism, disease, environmental collapse, worldwide conflict and millennial technologies. Many of these concerns have been made metaphorical: zombie hordes embody fear of out-of-control appetites and encroaching disorder. Other fears, like the prospect of human technology's turning on its creators, seem more reality based. This collection of new essays explores apocalyptic themes in a variety of post-millennial media, including film, television, video games, webisodes and smartphone apps.
Download or read book American Science Fiction Film and Television written by Lincoln Geraghty and published by Berg. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Science Fiction Film and Television presents a critical history of late 20th Century SF together with an analysis of the cultural and thematic concerns of this popular genre. Science fiction film and television were initially inspired by the classic literature of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. The potential and fears born with the Atomic age fuelled the popularity of the genre, upping the stakes for both technology and apocalypse. From the Cold War through to America's current War on Terror, science fiction has proved a subtle vehicle for the hopes, fears and preoccupations of a nation at war.The definitive introduction to American science fiction, this book is also the first study to analyze SF across both film and TV. Throughout, the discussion is illustrated with critical case studies of key films and television series, including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, and Battlestar Galactica.
Download or read book Science Fiction Film written by J. P. Telotte and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-24 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines one of the most enduring genres of Hollywood cinema: the science fiction film.
Download or read book The Limits of Infinity written by Vivian Carol Sobchack and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Monomyth written by Robert Jewett and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies written by Phil Hardy and published by Bounty Books. This book was released on 1986 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Heroes Monsters and Values written by Michael Berman and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2011-01-18 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting new anthology brings together many diverse views on blockbuster and cult science fiction films of the 1970s. These essays, which range in focus from Alien to Zardoz, explore some of the most fundamental questions about the meaning of being human. The chapters of the first section challenge our notions of heroism, confronting our ideas with issues of history, gender and embodiment. The second section’s contributions delve into the human caused monstrosities of our own ingenuity and curiosity whereby our technology transforms the human into a source of horror. The anthology’s final section is a chorus that speaks to the cinematic depictions that disrupt our religious and moral assumptions. The international group of contributors have produced a surprising, entertaining and enlightening work that will appeal to both science fiction and film enthusiasts the world over.
Download or read book American Cinema American Culture written by John Belton and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 2009 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ideal for Introduction to American Cinema courses, American Film History courses, and Introductory Film Appreciation courses focused on American Film, this text offers a cultural examination of the American movie-making industry, with particular attention paid to the economic and aesthetic institution of Hollywood.
