Hardcover
2001 · Westport, CT
by Booker, M. Keith
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Hardcover. VG (Ex-library with stamps and labels on spine, inside front and rear covers, ffep and block. Pages are otherwise clean and clear. Binding tight.). Red cloth boards with gilt lettering; 196 pp. Surveying a wide range of major science fiction novels and films, this book focuses on the long 1950s--the period from 1946 to 1964--when the tensions of the Cold War were at their peak. It demonstrates that these works reflect their historical and political contexts through a consistent concern with such phenomena as alienation and routinization, which Marxist critics have seen as central consequences of capitalism. Through its engagement with such issues, American science fiction of this period reflects the growing hegemony of capitalist ideology and consequently demonstrates the beginnings of postmodernism as a major American cultural phenomenon. Contents: Politics in the American science fiction novel, 1946-1964 : science fiction as social criticism -- The beginning or the end? : post-holocaust novels and films, 1946-1964 -- We're there and they're here! : space exploration and alien invasion films of the long 1950s -- The creature from the Cold War : science fiction monster movies of the long 1950s.
(Inventory #: 187326)