Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers a comprehensive, academic and detailed study of the works of James Cameron, whose films include successful productions such as the first two Terminator films (1984-91), Aliens (1986), Titanic (1997), and Avatar (2009), but also lesser known films such as Piranha 2: The Spawning (1981), The Abyss (1989), and True Lies (1994), and a series of documentaries on the depths of the ocean or on the tomb of Christ. Cameron's major productions have an immense and enduring popularity throughout the globe and have attracted both public and critical attention. This volume investigates several distinct areas of Cameron's works and addresses the different approaches and topics invited by the multidimensionality of the subject itself: the philosophical, the artistic, the socio-cultural and the personal. The methodologies adopted by the contributors differ significantly from each other, thus offering the reader a variegated and compelling picture of Cameron's oeuvre. Contrary to the nu
Trade ReviewBarkman and Sanna’s ambitious collection combines incisive coverage and remarkable accessibility with scholarly rigor. Complementing a growing number of resources on a veteran pop-culture influencer, the study amounts to a most compact and refreshing treatment of James Cameron's cinematic contributions. -- Nancy Kang, University of Manitoba
A good filmmaker will cause you to brood momentarily. But a great filmmaker like Cameron prompts philosophical topics aplenty, as the authors of this book make clear. -- Robert Arp, Research Instructor, US Army at Ft. Leavenworth
Table of ContentsChapter One: We Must Not Forget about the Flying Fish: Piranha II’s Influence on Cameron’s Subsequent Works Ian Thomas Malone and Antonio Sanna Chapter Two: Reframing Tragedy: Titanic, Affect and the Arresting Image Fran Pheasant-Kelly Chapter Three: Exploration, Education and Humanity: James Cameron’s Deep-Sea Documentaries Alissa Burger Chapter Four: Avatar, SF Mannerism and the Anthropocene Maurizia Natali Chapter Five: She’s the ‘King of the World!’ Modernizing Melodrama in Titanic Carol Donelan Chapter Six: Losing Touch or Making More Contact? Cameron’s Use of Technology and Visual Effects Paul Johnson Chapter Seven: The Exodus Decoded, The Lost Tomb of Jesus and the Problem of History for Faith Jonathan Fischer and Adam Barkman Chapter Eight: No Fate: James Cameron, Jesus, and John Connor Racheal Harris Chapter Nine: The Simulated Sublime: Exploring Hollywood Ecocriticism in Avatar Siobhan Lyons Chapter Ten: The Backlash and Empowerment of Feminism in Xenogenesis, Piranha II: The Spawning, and Aliens Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns Chapter Eleven: Taking Gettier to Tasker: True Lies, Knowledge, and the Prospects of Virtue Epistemology Michael Versteeg and Adam Barkman Chapter Twelve: “I Wanted to Do Something Outrageous”: On the Limits of Parody in True Lies Russell P. Johnson and Naaman K. Wood Section III: The Futurist Chapter Thirteen: Genetically Modified Human Beings in Dark Angel Sabine Planka Chapter Fourteen: Of Shape-Shifters and Shifting Alliances: The Politics of the Terminator Franchise Patrick Zwosta Chapter Fifteen: An Abyss of Aliens: Action, Allegory and Mythological Elements in Aliens and The Abyss Carl H. Sobocinski Chapter Sixteen: Refining Genre, Reassessing Gender: Assessing the Sacrificial Heroine in the Works of James Cameron Christian Jimenez Chapter Seventeen: “Two Candles in the Dark”: James Cameron’s Modern Fairy Tales Elsa Columbani
