This text argues that utopian stories should be treated as literary texts, not as blueprints for a human community. Thomas More's Utopia, H.G. Well's A Modern Utopia, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars are examined as texts representative of utopianism during specific historical periods--Provided by publisher.

The 14 essays in this volume explore Stephenie Meyer's wildly popular Twilight series in the contexts of literature, religion, fairy tales, film, and the gothic. Several contributors examine Meyer's emphasis on abstinence, considering how, why, and if the author's Mormon faith has influenced the series' worldview. Others look at fan involvement in the Twilight world, focusing on how the series' avid following has led to an economic transformation in Forks, Washington, the real town where the fictional series is set. Other topics include Meyer's use of Quileute shape-shifting legends;...

Following the Second World War, the Fleuve Noir publishing house published popular American genre fiction in translation for a French audience. Anticipation was an imprint of Fleuve Noir, specializing in science fiction. This critical text examines in ideological terms eleven writers who published under the Anticipation imprint. Anticipation eschewed English-translation science fiction, preferring instead French work and thus making the imprint an important outlet for native French post-war ideas and aesthetics. Careful analysis reveals the way these writers criticized mid-century notions of...

Australia has been a frequent choice as the location for narratives about the end of the world in science fiction and speculative works, ranging from pre-colonial apocalyptic maps to key literary works from the last fifty years. This critical volume explores the role of Australia in both apocalyptic literature and film. Topics covered include On the Beach and Mad Max, as well as children's literature, Indigenous writing, and cyberpunk. The text explores how apocalypse is used to undermine complacency, foretell environmental disasters, critique colonization, and act as a protest for minority...

Robert Holdstock was a prolific writer whose oeuvre included horror, fantasy, mystery and the novelization of films, often published under pseudonyms. These twelve critical essays explore the varied output of Holdstock by displaying his works against the backdrop of folk and fairy tales, dissecting their spaciotemporal order, and examining them as psychic fantasies of our unconscious life or as exempla of the sublime. The individual novels of the Mythago Wood sequence are explored, as is Holdstock's early science fiction and the Merlin Codex series.

Written by international experts from a range of disciplines, these essays examine the uniquely British contribution to science fiction film and television. Viewing British SF as a cultural phenomenon that challenges straightforward definitions of genre, nationhood, authorship and media, the editors provide a conceptual introduction placing the essays within their critical context. Essay topics include Hammer science fiction films, the various incarnations of Doctor Who, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and such 21st-century productions as 28 Days Later and Torchwood.

Focusing on eight TV series, this work analyses what makes these programs unique, and what they have in common.

In twelve critical and interdisciplinary essays, this text examines the relationship between the fantastic in novels, movies and video games and real-world debates about nationalism, globalization and cosmopolitanism. Topics covered include science fiction and postcolonialism, issues of ethnicity, nation and transnational discourse. Altogether, these essays chart a new discursive space, where postcolonial theory and science fiction and fantasy studies work cooperatively to expand our understanding of the fantastic, while simultaneously expanding the scope of postcolonial discussions.

Robert A. Heinlein was one of the most revered science fiction writers in America during the twentieth century. He published his early, juvenile science fiction novels between 1947 and 1958, just as America was emerging from World War II and entering the space age. This comprehensive work explores Heinlein's juvenile novels, providing pertinent definitions and explanations to aid the reader.

In the blockbuster film Avatar, science fiction and the technological prowess of director James Cameron meet in a heady concoction that, while visually ravishing, could easily be dismissed as eye candy. While critics most frequently acclaimed its breakthrough 3-D technology, close scrutiny of the film raises provocative questions about the relationship between mind and body, appearance and reality. It brings into focus the relationships of humans to their technology, their planet, and each other and highlights the nature and potential of film itself. This work explores the theoretical...