American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film

by David Seed

Overview

American Science Fiction--in both literature and film--has played a key role in the portrayal of the fears inherent in the Cold War. The end of this era heralds the need for a reassessment of the literary output of the forty-year period since 1945. Working through a series of key texts, American Science Fiction and the Cold War investigates the political inflections put on American narratives in the post-war decades by Cold War cultural circumstances. Nuclear holocaust, Russian invasion, and the perceived rise of totalitarianism in American society are key elements in the author's exploration of science fiction narratives that include Fahrenheit 451, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Dr. Strangelove.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135953898
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/31/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	225
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

David Seed

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter I Postwar Jeremiads: Philip Wylie and Leo Szilard; Chapter II Variations on a Patriotic Theme: Robert A. Heinlein; Chapter III History and Apocalypse in Poul Anderson; Chapter IV Views from the Hearth; Chapter V Cultures of Surveillance; Chapter VI Take-Over Bids: Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth; Chapter VII The Russians Have Come; Chapter VIII Embodying the Arms Race: Bernard Wolfe’s Limbo; Chapter IX The Cold War Computerised; Chapter X Conspiracy Narratives; Chapter XI Absurdist Visions: Dr. Strangelove in Context; Chapter XII The Signs of War: Walter M. Miller and Russel Hoban; Chapter XIII In the Aftermath; Chapter XIV The Star Wars Debate;

Editorial Reviews

Seed, a reader in the department of English at the University of Liverpool, investigates political inflections in American science fiction during the Cold War. Nuclear holocaust, Russian invasion, and the perceived rise of totalitarianism in American society are explored in such science fiction narratives as , , and . Seed's approach brings out ideological tensions and urgencies in this fiction by drawing on the significant body of nuclear criticism and the historicism of Hayden White and others. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

David Seed's thorough and tightly-argued book about Cold War American cinema and science fiction. Here the referencing is immaculate.

From the Publisher

Genuinely exciting … thoroughly revisionist in its range and preoccupations, adventurous in approach, and offering a radical re-reading of a body of work that has either been neglected entirely or marginalised as lacking serious social engagement … David Seed is unparallelled in both his knowledge of and authority within post-war American science fiction.

Professor Ian Bell