From its beginnings in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne to the virtual worlds of William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and "The Matrix," "Science Fiction: A Guide to the Perplexed" helps students navigate the often perplexing worlds of a perennially popular genre. Drawing on literature as well as example from film and television, the book explores the different answers that criticism has offered to the vexed question, 'what is science fiction?' Each chapter of the book includes case studies of key texts, annotated guides to further reading and suggestions for class discussion to help students master the full range of contemporary critical approaches to the field, including the scientific, technological and political contexts in which the genre has flourished. Ranging from an understanding of the genre through the stereotypes of 1930s pulps through more recent claims that we are living in a science fictional moment, this volume will provide a comprehensive overview of this diverse and fascinating genre.

Oxi (Gr. Determiner, lit. 'No', fig. 'Resistance', pronounced 'ochi') retells Sophocles' Antigone through the contemporary Greek crisis and modern European philosophy. A collaboration between the renowned British auteur Ken McMullen and the literary theorist Martin McQuillan, the film draws upon and responds to the importance of the Antigone of modern thought (Hegel, Arendt, Lacan, Derrida, Butler), while coming up close to the politics of the street and the malign effects of the austerity experiment in Greece today. The screenplay weaves together a range of idioms, including performance, fiction, documentary, interview and literary collage. The result is an intensely moving reflection on the tragedy of austerity today, with contributions from Helene Cixous, Etienne Balibar and Antonio Negri, as well as several significant figures in Greek cultural life. The volume includes full transcripts of the interviews with Cixous, Balibar and Negri, and a previously unpublished interview with Jacques Derrida on the question of Oedipus, as well as critical commentary from the filmmakers.

After the epochal turn of 1989 a new wave of movies dealing with the complex entanglement of religious and national identity has emerged in the eastern part of Europe. There has been plenty of evidence for a return of nationalism, while the predicated "return of religion(s)" is envisaged on a larger scale as a global phenomenon. The book suggests that in the wake of the historical turns of 1989, an "iconic turn" has taken place in Eastern Europe - in the form of a renewed cinematic commitment to make sense of the world in religious and/or national terms. "Iconic Turns" combines theoretical articles on the subject with case studies, bringing together researchers from different national backgrounds and disciplines, such as history, literary and film studies. Contributors include: Eva Binder, Jan Culik, Liliya Berezhnaya, Christian Schmitt, Hans-Joachim Schlegel, Maren Roeger, Miroslaw Przylipiak, Stephen Norris, John-Paul Himka, Maria Falina, and Natascha Drubek.

This work provides an accurate, in-depth examination and scientific evaluation of the most famous hauntings in American history as depicted in popular films and television programs. Neither a debunking book nor one written for the "true believer" in the paranormal, American Hauntings objectively scrutinizes the historic evidence behind such hugely popular films as The Exorcist, The Amityville Horror, An American Haunting, The Conjuring, and The Haunting in Connecticut to ascertain the accuracy of these entertainment depictions of "true life" hauntings. The authors then compare these popular culture accounts against the alleged real-life encounters and impartially weigh the evidence to assess whether each incident actually took place. Written by highly credentialed, recognized authorities on the paranormal and social psychology, this book contains meticulously documented, science-based information written for a broad audience, from middle and high school students and those taking introductory courses at a university level to general readers. There is no other work that provides as careful and unbiased an evaluation of the most famous hauntings in American history. The book also examines the reliability of popular television shows such as Unsolved Mysteries and Paranormal Witness. Supplies a balanced approach to the subject of the paranormal and social psychology that explores both sides of the issue and evaluates the evidence as a scientist would Examines subject matter that is of universal, natural interest to students, teachers, and the general public, and supplies interdisciplinary coverage of religion, history, sociology, social psychology, folklore, critical thinking, pseudoscience, and media/film studies Provides an ideal resource for students writing reports and research papers

Post-cinema designates a new way of making films. It is time to ask whether this novelty is complete or relative and to evaluate to what extent it represents a unitary or diversified current. The book proposes to integrate the post-cinema question within the post-art question in order to study the new ways of making filmic images. The issue will be considered at three levels: the impression of post-art on "regular" films; the "relocation" (Casetti) of the same films that can be seen using devices of all kinds in conditions more or less removed from the dispositif of the theater; the integration of cinema into contemporary art in all kinds of forms of creation and exhibition, parallel to the integration of contemporary art in "regular" cinema.

Winner of the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies 2016 Winner of the American Association for Italian Studies Book Prize 2016 This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Written by one of Europe's leading critics, Ecocriticism and Italy reads the diverse landscapes of Italy in the cultural imagination. From death in Venice as a literary trope and petrochemical curse, through the volcanoes of Naples to wine, food and environmental violence in Piedmont, Serenella Iovino explores Italy as a text where ecology and imagination meet. Examining cases where justice, society and politics interlace with stories of land and life, pollution and redemption, the book argues that literature, art and criticism are able to transform the unexpressed voices of these suffering worlds into stories of resistance and practices of liberation.

Some of the most memorable movies of Hollywood's Golden Age were based on novels that never received the acclaim they deserved. No-one who saw Rod Steiger in The Pawnbroker could forget the actor's wrenching performance but does anyone remember the author of the book on which the film was based? The same can be said of Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Greta Garbo in Susan Lenox, and Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This book retrieves these novels and re-evaluates the careers of the eight neglected novelists whose works inspired eight different directors - among them Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, John Huston and Sidney Pollack. Each chapter offers detailed analysis on both the original text and the resulting movie. Taken together, the double examination of novel and film raises some important questions about the nature and problems of cinematic adaptation.

Even for the casual viewer, the Netflix series Stranger Things will likely feel familiar, reminiscent of popular 1980s coming-of-age movies such as The Goonies, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Stand by Me. Throughout the series, nods to each movie are abundant. While Stranger Things and these classic 1980s films are all tales of childhood friendship and shared adventures, they are also narratives that reflect and shape the burgeoning cynicism of the 1980s. In Ode to Gen X: Institutional Cynicism in ""Stranger Things"" and 1980s Film, author Melissa Vosen Callens explores the parallels between iconic films featuring children and teenagers and the first three seasons of Stranger Things, a series about a group of young friends set in 1980s Indiana. The text moves beyond the (at times) non-sequitur 1980s Easter eggs to a common underlying narrative: Generation X's growing distrust in American institutions. Despite Gen X's cynicism toward both informal and formal institutions, viewers also see a more positive characteristic of Gen X in these films and series: Gen X's fierce independence and ability to rebuild and redefine the family unit despite continued economic hardships. Vosen Callens demonstrates how Stranger Things draws on popular 1980s popular culture to pay tribute to Gen X's evolving outlook on three key and interwoven American institutions: family, economy, and government.

The official novelization of a forthcoming crime film, featuring movie stills and an introduction by producer Jonathan Sothcott George never meant to kill the thief, he was just defending his shop from the jacked up kids who were trying to rob him. Arrested for murder, his world is turned upside down. The next night the doorbell rings, and before George has even opened the door the gang have swarmed into his house--they beat him senseless, rape his wife, and tie them up and set fire to them. Thoughtless, feral Jimmy, George's son, has been dishonorably discharged from the Royal Marines in Afghanistan and is on his way back to London when he gets the news. It isn't long before he's on the trail of the gang who murdered his parents, exacting his own kind of chillingly brutal justice. With the police closing in and his old regiment determined to stop him from airing their dirty laundry on trial, Jimmy goes underground. His actions have created a media frenzy, London's first vigilante of the 21st century. But will his devastating course of action spell the end of the woman he loves?

In Postsocialist Conditions: Idea and History in China's "Independent Cinema," 1988-2008, WANG Xiaoping offers a comprehensive survey and trenchant critique of China's "Independent Cinema" by the sixth-generation auteurs. By showing the multi-valence of the postsocialist conditions in contemporary Chinese society, their films articulate a new cultural-political logic in postsocialist China, which is also the logic of the market in this era of neoliberal transformation, brought about by the forces of marketization since the late 1980s. The directors laudably show the spirits of humanism and the humanitarian concerns of the underclass, yet the shortage and repudiation of class analysis prohibits the artists from exploring the social contradictions and the cause of class restructuration.

Recent narrative fiction and film increasingly exploit, explore and thematize the embodied mind, revealing the tenacity of a certain brand of humanism. The presence of narratively based concepts of personal identity even in texts which explore posthuman possibilities is strong proof that our basic understanding of what it means to be human has, despite appearances, remained mostly unchanged. This is so even though our perception of time has been greatly modified by the same technology which both interrupts and allows for the rearrangement of our experience of time at a rate and a level of ease which, until recently, had never been possible. Basing his views on a long line of philosophers and literary theorists such as Paul Ricoeur, Daniel Dennett and Francisco Varela, Escobar maintains in The Persistence of the Human that narrative plays an essential role in the process of constituting and maintaining a sense of self. It is narrative's effect on the embodied mind which gives it such force. Narrative projects us into possible spaces, shaping a temporary corporeality termed the "meta-body," a hybrid shared by the lived body and an imagined corporeal sense. The meta-body is a secondary embodiment that we inhabit for however long our narrative immersion lasts - something which, in today's world, may be a question of milliseconds or hours. The more agreeable the meta-body is, the less happy we are upon being abruptly removed from it, though the return is essential. We want to be able to slip back and forth between this secondary embodiment and that of our lived body; each move entails both forgetting and remembering different subject positions (loss and recuperation being salient themes in the works which highlight this process). The negotiation of the transfer between these states is shaped by culture and technology and this is something which is precisely in flux now as multiple, ephemeral narrative immersion experiences are created by the different screens we come into contact with.

A Kansas City Star 2008 Notable Book

Since the early days of Hollywood film, portrayals of interracial romance and of individuals of mixed racial and ethnic heritage have served to highlight and challenge fault lines within Hollywood and the nation&#8217s racial categories and borders. Mixed Race Hollywood is a pioneering compilation of essays on mixed-race romance, individuals, families, and stars in U.S. film and media culture.

Situated at the cutting-edge juncture of ethnic studies and media studies, this collection addresses early mixed-race film characters, Blaxploitation, mixed race in children&#8217s television programming, and the "outing" of mixed-race stars on the Internet, among other issues and contemporary trends in mixed-race representation. The contributors explore this history and current trends from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives in order to better understand the evolving conception of race and ethnicity in contemporary culture.

This book offers a theory and methodology of transmedia arts activism within the technocultural and sociopolitical landscape of expanded documentary production, distribution, reception and participation. Through a detailed analysis of the author's transmedia project on indigenous and minority language endangerment and revival that consists of the feature-length documentary Tongues of Heaven and the companion web application Root Tongue: Sharing Stories of Language Identity and Revival, she reveals the layers and depths of a critical arts practice when confronted with complex sociopolitical issues while working with multiple communities across territorial/national boundaries. In the context of the growing field of transmedia documentaries, the author discusses the potentials and benefits of a critical design practice and production ethics that can transform this field to pilot new collaborations in documentary and digital media platforms towards a third digital documentary.

Hip Hop literature, also known as urban fiction or street lit, is a type of writing evocative of the harsh realities of life in the inner city. Beginning with seminal works by such writers as Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim and culminating in contemporary fiction, autobiography, and poetry, Hip Hop literature is exerting the same kind of influence as Hip Hop music, fashion, and culture. This encyclopedia defines the world of Hip Hop literature for students and general readers. Included are more than 180 alphabetically entries on authors, genres, and works, as well as on the musical artists, fashion designers, directors, and other figures who make up the context of Hip Hop literature. Among the topics covered are: Beat Street Between God and Gangsta Rap Black Popular Culture Blaxploitation Bullet Proof Children's Literature Cupcake Brown Deconstructing Tyrone Fly Girl Graphic Novels Hip Hop Music Horror Fiction Walter Dean Myers Teri Woods And many more. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia concludes with a selected, general bibliography. Students in literature classes will value this guide to an increasingly popular body of literature, while students in social studies classes will welcome its illumination of American cultural diversity.

A Companion to Soviet Children's Literature and Film offers a comprehensive and innovative analysis of Soviet literary and cinematic production for children. Its contributors contextualize and reevaluate Soviet children's books, films, and animation and explore their contemporary re-appropriation by the Russian government, cultural practitioners, and educators. Celebrating the centennial of Soviet children's literature and film, the Companion reviews the rich and dramatic history of the canon. It also provides an insight into the close ties between Soviet children's culture and Avant-Garde aesthetics, investigates early pedagogical experiments of the Soviet state, documents the importance of translation in children's literature of the 1920-80s, and traces the evolution of heroic, fantastic, historical, and absurdist Soviet narratives for children.