Empire of Dreams The Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of Steven Spielberg
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Andrew M. Gordon is associate professor of English at the University of Florida and director of the Institute for the Psychological Study of the Arts. He is the author of An American Dreamer: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Fiction of Norman Mailer, co-editor (with Peter Rudnytsky) of Psychoanalyses/Feminisms, and co-author (with HernOn Vera) of Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness, and has many articles and reviews on contemporary American fiction and film, particularly science-fiction film.Andrew Gordon has produced an exhaustive investigation of this major part of Spielberg's oeuvre—appreciative but also critical, finding the complexities inside films that superficial critics have dismissed as childish or manipulative. It's very rewarding to mentally rewind and watch them again with Professor Gordon's insights playing along.
- Joe Haldeman, author, The Forever War, Camouflage, and The Accidental Time Machine,
This is a highly desirable book on a highly necessary topic. Such a major cultural force requires a major study. Well, here it is...
- Brian Aldiss, author of Super-Toys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time (2001),
Eminently readable and including good photographs, references after each chapter, and a detailed index, this book should have a broad readership....Recommended. All readers, all levels.
- ., Choice Reviews
Gordon's book is...engagingly written....Gordon seems able effortlessly to transform any Spielberg film into an example of the logic of any particular psychological or psychoanalytical framework he finds at hand—a number of passages would...provide undergraduates with a clear sense of how mutually to understand a theoretical structure and a film narrative.
Science Fiction Film and Television
Offers the most comprehensive review of the critical receptions and readings of Spielberg's sf, fantasy, and horror films….His chapters can be easily excerpted for film students….Gordon's book is both intelligent and fun to read….It is worth a read.
The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
It was a pleasure to have a 'close encounter' with this take on Spielberg's science fiction and fantasy oeuvre. I simply could not put it down! Gordon's adroit use of insightful research coupled with an engaging, accessible writing style and solid organization makes this book useful to readers who range from the general public to the academic expert to students. In short, Gordon boldly goes where no critic has gone before in relation to Spielberg.
- Marleen S. Barr, author, <I>Oy Pioneer!: A Novel<I>, <I>Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction<I>, and <I>Lost in Space: Probing Feminist,
Chapter 1 Introduction: "I dream for a living"
Chapter 2 1: Duel (1971): Paranoid Style
Chapter 3 2: Jaws (1975): Hydrophobia
Chapter 4 3: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977; rev. 1980): Unidentified Flying Object Relations
Chapter 5 4: E.T. (1982) as Fairy Tale
Chapter 6 5: Poltergeist (1982): Divorce American Style
Chapter 7 6: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): Totem and Taboo
Chapter 8 7: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984): Bad Medicine
Chapter 9 8: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Raiders of the Lost Father
Chapter 10 9: Always (1989) and the Eternal Triangle
Chapter 11 10: Short Films: "Kick the Can" (1983) and "The Mission" (1986)
Chapter 12 11: Hook (1991): The Peter Pan Syndrome
Chapter 13 12: Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997): Jaws on Land
Chapter 14 13: A.I. (2001): Separation Anxiety
Chapter 15 14: Minority Report (2002): Oedipus Redux
Chapter 16 15: War of the Worlds (2005) and Trauma Culture
Chapter 17 Conclusion: Moving Toward the Light