Description
Book SynopsisThe Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film offers critical insights into SF far beyond the more common Anglo-American narratives. Contributors take either a national or transnational approach, and stretch the geographic and conceptual boundaries of science fiction cinema. Recurrent themes include genre discussions, engagement with Hollywood, and the international subgenre of science fiction parody. Chapters contain a variety of perspectives and styles: from gender and race studies, to the eco-critical, and the post-colonial; from the avant-garde, to socialist realism, and the Hammer film. Edited by Sonja Fritzsche, the collection contains fourteen chapters written by specialists from around the world. Film traditions represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is also a chapter on digital shorts. From the dinosaur myth that became Godzilla to Brazilian science fiction comedy, from China’s Death Ray to Kenya’s Pumzi, this book will broaden the horizons of scholars and students of science fiction.
Trade Review'A welcome and overdue addition to the critical discourse surrounding science fiction cinema. This book provides an important point of entry for those academics and students who wish to broaden their understanding of science fiction film as a global phenomenon rather than simply as a Hollywood or Anglophone practice.'
Peter Wright, Edge Hill University
Table of Contents
- Introduction - Sonja Fritzsche
- PART I: AFRICA
- 1. The Environmental Dominant in Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi - Ritch Calvin
- PART II: ASIA
- 2. Death Ray on a Coral Island as China’s First Science Fiction Film - Jie Zhang
- 3. Indian Science Fiction Cinema: An Overview - Jessica Langer and Dominic Alessio
- 4. On the Monstrous Planet: or, How Godzilla Took a Roman Holiday - Takayuki Tatsumi, translated by Seth Jacobowitz
- PART III: EUROPE
- 5. Invaders, Launchpads and Hybrids: The Importance of Transmediality in British Science Fiction Film in the 1950s - Derek Johnston
- 6. Gender and Apocalypse in Eastern European Cinema - Jason Merrill
- 7. Casting for a Socialist Earth: Multicultural Whiteness in the East German/Polish Science-Fiction Film Silent Star (1960) - Evan Torner
- 8. Looking for French Science Fiction Cinema - Daniel Tron
- 9. Science Fiction Interventions in Irish Cinema - Katie Moylan
- 10. The Uncomfortable Relationship Between Science Fiction and Italy:Film, Humor, and Gender - Rafaella Boccolini
- PART IV: NORTH AMERICA
- 11. Are Black Women the Future of Man? The Role of Black Women in Political and Cultural Transformation in Science Fiction from the US and Cameroon - Robyn Citizen
- PART V: SOUTH AMERICA
- 12. Maradona on the Moon: Postcolonial Politics and Cultural Hybridity in Argentina’s Goodbye Dear Moon - Mariano Paz
- 13. Alert Limit! A Short History of Brazilian Science Fiction Film and Its Fight for Survival in a Rarefied Atmosphere - Alfredo Suppia
- PART VI: DIGITAL CINEMA
- 14. Digital Film and Audiences - Pawel Frelik
- Recommended Viewing
