Culture, Identities and Technology in the Star Wars Films: Essays on the Two Trilogies

by Carl Silvio, Tony M. Vinci, Donald E. Palumbo

Overview

Released in May 1977, the original Star Wars movie inaugurated the age of the movie blockbuster. It also redefined the use of cinematic special effects, creating a new textual universe that now stretches through three decades, two trilogies and generations of fascinated viewers. The body of critical analysis that has developed from this epic focuses primarily on the Star Wars universe as a contemporary myth. However, like any fiction, it must also be viewed--and consequently analyzed--as a product of the culture which created it.

The essays in this book analyze the Star Wars trilogies as a culturally and historically specific phenomenon. Moving away from the traditional myth-based criticism of the films, the essayists employ a cultural studies model to examine how this phenomenon intersects with social formations such as economics, technology, race and gender. Critical approaches are varied and include political and economic analysis informed by feminism, contemporary race theory, Marxism, new media studies and post-humanism. Among the topics covered are the connections between the trilogies and our own cultural landscape; the problematic issues of race and gender; and the thematic implications of Lucas' presentation of technology.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786429103
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	01/24/2007
Series:	Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy , #3
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	243
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Carl Silvio is an assistant professor of English at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. He lives in Rochester. Tony M. Vinci is an associate professor of English at Ohio University, where he teaches literature and popular culture. His research interests include twentieth- and twenty-first-century American literature and culture, ethics, trauma studies, critical posthumanisms, and speculative fiction and film.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction
Moving Away from Myth: Star Wars as Cultural Artifact     

PART I : CULTURAL CONTEXTS
1. The Fall of the Rebellion; or, Defiant and Obedient Heroes in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Individualism and Intertextuality in the Star Wars Trilogies     
2. Apocalyptic Determinism and Star Wars     
3. The Star Wars Trilogies and Global Capitalism     

PART II : IDENTITY POLITICS
4. May the Force (Not) Be with You: “Race Critical” Readings and the Star Wars Universe     
5. Feminism and the Force: Empowerment and Disillusionment in a Galaxy Far, Far Away     
6. Seduced by the Dark Side of the Force: Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Agency in George Lucas’s Star Wars Universe     

PART III : TECHNOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION
7. Kill Binks: Why the World Hated Its First Digital Actor     
8. “Your Father’s Lightsaber”: The Fetishization of Objects Between the Trilogies     
9. The Emperor’s New Clones; or, Digitization and Walter Benjamin in the Star Wars Universe     

Contributors     
Works Cited     
Index     

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