Mark Bould

From Ducks, Newburyport to zombie movies and the Fast and Furious franchise, how climate anxiety permeates our culture The art and literature of our time is pregnant with catastrophe, with weather and water, wildness and weirdness. The Anthropocene - the term given to this geological epoch in which humans, anthropos, are wreaking havoc on the earth - is to be found bubbling away everywhere in contemporary cultural production. Typically, discussions of how culture registers, figures and mediates climate change focus on 'climate fiction' or 'cli-fi', but The Anthropocene Unconscious is more interested in how the Anthropocene and especially anthropogenic climate destabilisation manifests in texts that are not overtly about climate change - that is, unconsciously. The Anthropocene, Mark Bould argues, constitutes the unconscious of 'the art and literature of our time'. Tracing the outlines of the Anthropocene unconscious in a range of film, television and literature - across a range of genres and with utter disregard for high-low culture distinctions - this playful and riveting book draws out some of the things that are repressed and obscured by the term 'the Anthropocene', including capital, class, imperialism, inequality, alienation, violence, commodification, patriarchy and racial formations. The Anthropocene Unconscious is about a kind of rewriting. It asks: what happens when we stop assuming that the text is not about the anthropogenic biosphere crises engulfing us? What if all the stories we tell are stories about the Anthropocene? About climate change?

Climate Catastrophe in Contemporary Culture

The Anthropocene Unconscious

China Mieville

Science fiction and socialism have always had a close relationship. Many science fiction novelists and filmmakers have used the genre to examine explicit or implicit Marxist concerns. Red Planets is an accessible and lively account, which makes an ideal introduction to anyone interested in the politics of science fiction. The volume covers a rich variety of examples from Weimar cinema to mainstream Hollywood films, and novelists from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, and Thomas Disch to Ursula K. Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ken MacLeod, and Charles Stross. Contributors include Matthew Beaumont, William J. Burling, Carl Freedman, Darren Jorgensen, Rob Latham, Iris Luppa, Andrew Milner, John Rieder, Steven Shaviro, Sherryl Vint, and Phillip Wegner.

Marxism and Science Fiction

Red Planets

Rhys Williams

This critical collection examines the way in which M. John Harrison has been at the forefront of British speculative fiction, from the New Wave to the New Weird and beyond, excoriating its lumpy prose, refusing its cheap consolations, and reinventing its most debased forms. Along with his depictions of a fallen world, of fragile humanity, entropic landscapes and self-harming trajectories, of transport cafes, moorland peaks and legendary cities, reinvented sword'n'sorcery, space opera and supernatural horror as profound meditations on desire and loss. Reviews An indispensable compendium of essays nearly as varied and compelling as its subject, the writer who (despite his most stringent objections to being valorized) remains one of contemporary literature's genuine legends, and for good reason. --Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation Loss and Curious Toys<br \><br \>Revered by such writers as Iain Banks, Neil Gaiman and China Miéville, M. John Harrison has long influenced the development of SF/F but been curiously overlooked in academic criticism. The first scholarly collection dedicated to his writings does a fantastic job of introducing readers to the compelling strangeness of his narrative worlds. From his early review essays for New Worlds in the late 1960s to his Viriconium series and more recent Empty Space trilogy, Harrison has delved into oneiric landscapes full of grotesque ambiguity and cracked perspectives. In examining the techniques of recursive intertextuality, ontological questioning and destabilisation of genre expectations, this collection suggest rich avenues of inquiry for future Harrisonian scholarship. --Caroline Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Birkbeck, University of London Finally! A comprehensive critical resource for this most singular of contemporary writers. Bould and Williams have assembled a formidable array of creative, fiercely intelligent, witty and original essays, including a contribution by the man himself. This collection stands as proper tribute to Harrison's exceptional work. All the reading lists, everywhere, now! --Graeme McDonald, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick 'Provide a sense of linkage for unlinked things,' Harrison says in his opening gnomic notes here, 'Place things together so that they seem embarrassed'. Ornery, oblique and downright weird, Harrison's fiction is a taut snare. The excellence of this collection is its ability to make sense of the geometry of these traps. Authoritative editors bring together some of the best critics of science fiction, fantasy and horror to map the strange edgelands where Harrison's fictions brew. Essential reading. --Roger Luckhurst, Professor in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Birkbeck, University of London

Critical Essays

M. John Harrison

"Film Noir explores the murky world of a genre responsible for many of film's most enduring images. Mark Bould discusses problems of definition and the often ambiguous nature of film noir and looks at contemporary 'neo-noir' films. Iconic and enduring, film noir attracted great stars (Bogart, Bacall, Mitchum, Lancaster), many of the best directors of the postwar period (Wilder, Lang, Preminger, Hawks, Siodmak, Welles) and in considering the history and continuing importance of noir, from Weimar Cinema to Sin City, this book is an indispensible guide to this still popular genre."--

From Berlin to Sin City

Film Noir

Steven Shaviro

Science fiction as a vital bridge between technoscience and culture, an early warning system, a method for imagining differently. In the new millennium, science fiction has moved from the margins to the mainstream. At the same time, it has undergone massive transformations. No longer can it be derided as indigestible technobabble or escapist trash or a white man’s playground—not that it ever really was. Sf is rich and diverse, serious, and fun. A vital bridge between technoscience and culture, it is an early warning system, a method for imagining differently, and a way of experiencing our increasingly science-fictional world. It is the vernacular of the 21st century. This Is Not A Science Fiction Textbook brings together leading sf scholars, including some of the most exciting new critical voices, to introduce the genre for the general reader. Its first part outlines some key ideas used to think about sf, such as Estrangement, Extrapolation, and Alterity. Its second part maps some of the genre’s global history, from the Enlightenment and European colonialism to Indigenous and African Futurisms. Its third part surveys sf at the turn of the 2020s, organised by concepts, movements and new academic disciplines, from Afrofuturism and Animal Studies to Queer Theory and the Weird—and each chapter, whether it is on Climate Fiction or Neurodiversity, is accompanied by an introduction to a major contemporary novel and film.

This Is Not a Science Fiction Textbook

Michelle Reid

Critical Writings by and on M. John Harrison

Parietal Games

Kathrina Glitre

Greg Tuck

Neo-noir knows its past. It knows the rules of the game – and how to break them. From Point Blank (1998) to Oldboy (2003), from Get Carter (2000) to 36 Quai des Orfèvres (2004), from Catherine Tramell to Max Payne, neo-noir is a transnational global phenomenon. This wide-ranging collection maps out the terrain, combining genre, stylistic and textual analysis with Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic and industrial approaches. Essays discuss works from the US, UK, France, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and New Zealand; key figures, such as David Lynch, the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino and Sharon Stone; major conventions, such as the femme fatale, paranoia, anxiety, the city and the threat to the self; and the use of sound and colour.

Neo-Noir

Through discussion of films such as 'Return of the Secaucus 7', 'The Brother from Another Planet' 'Matewan' and 'Sunshine State', this study uncovers themes of racial and sexual otherness, capitalist excess and the erosion of community in the work of John Sayles.

Lone Star

The Cinema of John Sayles

Judie Newman

Oliver Harris

Grahame Smith

John Plunkett

Carol Watts

Deborah Madsen

Essays on the links between film and fiction, and their mutual influence.

Literature and the Visual Media

A unique account of the Chinese Revolution, seen through the eyes of American journalist Rayna Prohme.

The art and literature of our time is pregnant with catastrophe, with weather and water, wildness and weirdness. The Anthropocene – the term given to this geological epoch in which humans, anthropos, are wreaking havoc on the earth – is to be found bubbling away everywhere in contemporary cultural production. Typically, discussions of how culture registers, figures and mediates climate change focus on ‘climate fiction’ or ‘cli-fi’, but The Anthropocene Unconscious is more interested in how the Anthropocene and especially anthropogenic climate destabilisation manifests in texts that are not overtly about climate change – that is, unconsciously. The Anthropocene, Mark Bould argues, constitutes the unconscious of ‘the art and literature of our time’. Tracing the outlines of the Anthropocene unconscious in a range of film, television and literature – across a range of genres and with utter disregard for high-low culture distinctions – this playful and riveting book draws out some of the things that are repressed and obscured by the term ‘the Anthropocene’, including capital, class, imperialism, inequality, alienation, violence, commodification, patriarchy and racial formations. The Anthropocene Unconscious is about a kind of rewriting. It asks: what happens when we stop assuming that the text is not about the anthropogenic biosphere crises engulfing us? What if all the stories we tell are stories about the Anthropocene? About climate change?

Alex Woloch

Cynthia Baron

Martin F. Norden

Maureen Turim

Greg M. Smith

Susan Felleman

Klaus Rieser

Rebecca M. Gordon

Laura Barrett

Hamilton Carroll

Mika Turim-Nygren

The first collection of original essays on the work of writer-director John Sayles, this book addresses the full range of his films from a variety of critical viewpoints.

New Perspectives on Independent Filmmaker John Sayles

Sayles Talk

Adam Roberts

Sherryl Vint

Andrew Butler

Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction is a collection of engaging essays on some of the most significant figures who have shaped and defined the genre. Diverse groups within the science fiction community are represented, from novelists and film makers to comic book and television writers. Important and influential names discussed include: Octavia Butler George Lucas Robert Heinlein Gene Roddenberry Stan Lee Ursula K. Le Guin H.G. Wells This outstanding reference guide charts the rich and varied landscape of science fiction and includes helpful and up-to-date lists of further reading at the end of each entry. Available in an easy to use A-Z format, Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction will be of interest to students of Literature, Film Studies, and Cultural Studies.

Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction

Despite being one of Andrei Tarkovsky's most successful films, Solaris (1972) was the one he most disliked. This dismissal of his most generically marked film has often been accepted by those quick to embrace the image of Tarkovsky as a transcendent artist rising above the politics of the Soviet film industry and the trappings of genre to produce personal works of art. Going against such currents, Mark Bould instead treats Solaris as the product of a genre as well as the work of a skilled film-maker. He teases out Tarkovsky's fascination with Stanislaw Lem, on whose novel the film was based, and also considers Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation. Lively and revealing, Bould's examination situates Solaris within the Russian and global cultures of the fantastic, to which Tarkovsky contributed three major science fiction films. This special edition features original cover artwork by Matthew Shlian.

Solaris

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is a comprehensive overview of the history and study of science fiction. It outlines major writers, movements, and texts in the genre, established critical approaches and areas for future study. Fifty-six entries by a team of renowned international contributors are divided into four parts which look, in turn, at: history – an integrated chronological narrative of the genre’s development theory – detailed accounts of major theoretical approaches including feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism and utopian studies issues and challenges – anticipates future directions for study in areas as diverse as science studies, music, design, environmentalism, ethics and alterity subgenres – a prismatic view of the genre, tracing themes and developments within specific subgenres. Bringing into dialogue the many perspectives on the genre The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and the future of science fiction and the way it is taught and studied.

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction

The term ‘science fiction’ has an established common usage, but close examination reveals that writers, fans, editors, scholars, and publishers often use this word in different ways for different reasons. Exploring how science fiction has emerged through competing versions and the struggle to define its limits, this Concise History: provides an accessible and clear overview of the development of the genre traces the separation of sf from a broader fantastic literature and the simultaneous formation of neighbouring genres, such as fantasy and horror shows the relationship between magazine and paperback traditions in sf publishing is organised by theme and presented chronologically uses text boxes throughout to highlight key works in sf traditions including dystopian, apocalyptic and evolutionary fiction includes a short overview and bullet-pointed conclusion for each chapter. Discussing the place of key works and looking forward to the future of the genre, this book is the ideal starting point both for students and all those seeking a better understanding of science fiction.

The Routledge Concise History of Science Fiction

Despite being one of Andrei Tarkovsky's most successful films, Solaris (1972) was the one he most disliked. This dismissal of his most generically marked film has often been accepted by those quick to embrace the image of Tarkovsky as a transcendent artist rising above the politics of the Soviet film industry and the trappings of genre to produce personal works of art. Going against such currents, Mark Bould instead treats Solaris as the product of a genre as well as the work of a skilled film-maker. He teases out Tarkovsky's fascination with Stanis?aw Lem, on whose novel the film was based, and also considers Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation. Lively and revealing, Bould's examination situates Solaris within the Russian and global cultures of the fantastic, to which Tarkovsky contributed three major science fiction films. This special edition features original cover artwork by Matthew Shlian.

Science Fiction explores the genre from 1895 to the present day, drawing on examples from over forty countries. It raises questions about the relationship between science fiction, science and technology, and examines the interrelationships between spectacle, narrative and self-reflexivity, paying particular attention to the role of special effects in creating meaning and affect. It explores science fiction's evocations of the sublime, the grotesque, and the camp, and charts the ways in which the genre reproduces and articulates discourses of colonialism, imperialism and neo-liberal globalization. At the same time, Science Fiction provides a thorough analysis of the genre's representation of race, class, gender and sexuality, making this text an essential guide for students, academics and film fans alike. Key films discussed include: Le voyage dans la lune (1902) 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1916) L'Atlantide (1921) King Kong (1933, 2005) Gojira (1954) La Jetée (1962) The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) Tetsuo (1989) Sleep Dealer (2008) Avatar (2009)

Mark Bould

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