American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and FilmTaylor & Francis, 1999 - 216 pages 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. |
Contents
Philip Wylie and Leo Szilard | 14 |
Robert A Heinlein | 28 |
History and Apocalypse in Poul Anderson | 40 |
Views from the Hearth | 53 |
The Russians Have Come | 94 |
Bernard Wolfes Limbo | 107 |
The Cold War Computerised | 119 |
Dr Strangelove in Context | 145 |
Walter M Miller and Russell Hoban | 157 |
In the Aftermath | 168 |
The Star Wars Debate | 181 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American analogy Anderson apocalyptic argues Asimov atomic bomb attempts become Blish Bova characters civil defence Cold Cold War Communism Communist conspiracy culture death debate declared Derrida describes destruction device Dick discourse Doomsday dramatises dystopia Earth enemy event Fahrenheit 451 fallout fear film Fiskadoro foregrounds Frederik Pohl future H-bomb Heinlein Hiroshima Hoban holocaust human Huxley ideology Immob invasion Jerry Pournelle Kornbluth Leo Szilard Limbo machine metaphor military Miller missiles Mordecai Roshwald narrative narrator Nineteen Eighty-Four novel nuclear attack nuclear war nuclear weapons paranoid Philip Wylie planet Pohl political post-holocaust postwar Poul Anderson Pournelle protagonist reader realises recognised regime Riddley role Roshwald Russians science fiction scientist shelter social Soviet Union Space Merchants Star Wars story Strangelove strategic superpower survival survivalist survivors symbolic Szilard takes transformed ultimate underground Vandenberg Warday Wolfe writers Wylie Wylie's