The science fiction film in contemporary Hollywood

Bloomsbury Academic

2023

226 p.

9781501380235

Contents: Introduction: History, theory, science fiction (SF) film Part I: Theory/History 1. Uncovering the deep and surface structures of SF film 2. Conglomerate Hollywood, technology and filmmakers Part II: The Cycles: SF Bodies/SF Worlds SF Bodies 3. The techno-humans cycle. The exceptional and the ordinary technological body 4. The alien encounters cycle. The millennial ambiguity of the Other 5. The creatures cycle. The organic, the mechanic and the in-between SF Worlds 6. The dystopia/utopia cycle. Surviving ecopolitical disasters 7. The zones cycle. The enclosed spatiotemporalities of global capitalism 8. The fantastic worlds cycle. The spectacular technoscientific Empire; Epilogue; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

The Science Fiction Film in Contemporary Hollywood focuses on the American science fiction (SF) film during the period 2001-2020, in order to provide a theoretical mapping of the genre in the context of Conglomerate Hollywood. Using a social semiotics approach in a systematic corpus of films, the book argues that the SF film can be delineated by two semiotic squares the first one centering on the genre s more-than-human ontologies (SF bodies), and the second one focusing on its imaginative worlds (SF worlds). Based on this theoretical framework, the book examines the genre in six cycles, which are placed in their historical context, and are analyzed in relation to cultural discourses, such as technological embodiment, race, animal-human relations, environmentalism, global capitalism, and the techno-scientific Empire. By considering these cycles which include superhero films, creature films, space operas, among others as expressions of the genre s basic oppositions, the book facilitates the comparison and juxtaposition of films that have rarely been discussed in tandem, offering a new perspective on the multiple articulations of the SF film in the new millennium.

Английский