Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley / Edition 1

by Jason Smith, Ximena Gallardo

Overview

Alien Woman examines the construction of sex and gender in the four science-fiction films comprising the Alien saga (starring Sigourney Weaver). The Alien saga stands alone in presenting an enduring, self-reliant female protagonist, Ripley, who in the first film ends up as the sole survivor of the beleaguered starship Nostromo. Subsequent writers and directors in the 1980s and 1990s, left to grapple with this strong female protagonist, reenvision Ripley for different social, political, and cultural imperatives for women. Alien Woman focuses on how these writers and directors have re-written Ripley and how each revision informs our understanding of women in science fiction. And by examining the films' creation and commodification of the female hero, the books illustrates how changing attitudes toward women and the female body help us understand broader societal beliefs and relationships, and provides a useful lens with which to understand woman's place in the late 20th century and early 21st century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826419101
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/2006
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

C. Jason Smith is Assistant Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College-CUNY. A native of Chile, Ximena Gallardo-C. graduated with a Ph.D. in English from Louisiana State University. She lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Can't Live with Them, Can't Kill Them
Chapter 1: Men, Women, and Alien Baby
Chapter 2: Ripley Gets her Gun: Aliens and teh Reagan Era Hero
Chapter 3: "The Bitch Is Back": The Iconoclastic Body in Alien
Chapter 4: "Who Are You?": Alien Resurrection and the Posthuman Subject
Afterword: Alien Woman
Selected Bibliography
Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

."..a serious contribution to academia, for it is well-researched and conscientiously documented, but its strength is that it is highly accessible to the average fan...written with clarity, with a diverse audience in mind. It is one of those texts that both scholars and fans will want to more than just read; they will want to purchase a copy so that they can reference it over and over....fans will be astounded by the amount of useful but little known factual information...it was Gallardo and Smith's enthusiasm and wry sense of humor, which informs almost every page of the book, that made me want to not only read every word, but go out and rent all four alien films again." -The Review of Horror Fiction

"Alien Woman is a truly fascinating analysis of the relationship/ conflict between the female protagonist Lt. Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, and the monstrous feminine Alien throughout the Alien saga...Insightful scene-by-scene analysis reveals race, gender, and class distinctions operating in each of the four Alien films....Alien Woman is a celebration of the new found light in discussion of gender, sex, and the female body in science fiction film studies. The authors display a vast awareness of the science fiction film genre and present the material in digetible chunks....the notes and bibliography provide more than ample theoretical reference for further study. Stella Williams, Reconstruction --Sanford Lakoff

"Doing a transtextual analysis of the films, the authors place the films firmly within the cultural landscape that produced them....Gallardo and Smith do a good job analyzing the films, especially the later ones, and setting them squarely and intelligently within their historical context." -Post Script, Winter/Spring '04

"By examining the films' creation and commodification of the female hero, the book illustrates how changing attitudes toward women and the female body help us understand broader societal beliefs and relationships, and provides a useful lens with which to understand woman's place in the late 20th century and early 21st century." www.aliensconnection.com

[a] look between the lines and behind the scenes to dissect Ripley and her place in movie history. Minnesota Daily, mndaily.com, November 3, 2004

From the Publisher