Sisterhood, Science and Surveillance in Orphan Black: Critical Essays

by Janet Brennan Croft (Editor), Alyson R. Buckman (Editor)

Overview

The BBC America series Orphan Black (2013-2017) won acclaim for its compelling writing, resonant themes and innovative special effects. And for the bravura acting of Tatiana Maslany, who plays an ever-growing number of clones drawn into an increasingly dangerous world of cutting-edge science, corporate espionage, military secrets and religious fanaticism.

Heir to pioneering shows centered on strong female characters, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Lost and Xena: Warrior Princess, Orphan Black models the current Golden Age of serial-form storytelling, with themes of identity, bodily autonomy, gender and sexuality playing against corporate greed and its co-opting of science.

This collection of new essays analyzes the diverse clone characters and the series, covering topics including motherhood, surveillance culture, mythology, eugenics, and special effects, as well as the science behind cloning.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476637839
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	10/30/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Janet Brennan Croft is liaison to the School of Communication and Information and Librarian for Disability Services and Copyright at Rutgers University Libraries in North Brunswick, New Jersey. She has written on the Peter Jackson films, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors, and is editor or co-editor of five collections of literary essays and edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore. Alyson R. Buckman is a professor in and current chair of the humanities and religious studies department at California State University, Sacramento. She has published on Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, The Gilmore Girls, Orphan Black, and the Whedonverse.
Janet Brennan Croft is liaison to the school of communication and information and librarian for disability services and copyright at Rutgers University Libraries in North Brunswick, New Jersey. She has written on the Peter Jackson films, J.K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Lois McMaster Bujold, and other authors, and is editor or co-editor of five collections of literary essays and edits the refereed scholarly journal Mythlore.
Alyson R. Buckman is a professor in and current chair of the humanities and religious studies department at California State University, Sacramento. She has published on Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, The Gilmore Girls, Orphan Black, and the Whedonverse.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Galaxy of Women
Alyson R. Buckman and Janet Brennan Croft
“I am not your property”: The Progressive Feminism
of Orphan Black (Graeme J. Wilson)
Women’s Rebellion or Radical Containment? Understanding
Orphan Black’s Feminist Message (Dani Howell)
“To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings”: Soccer Moms, Punks and Postfeminist Mothers on Orphan Black (Erin Bell)
Making Clones, Making Mothers: Motherhood in Orphan Black (Jenny Bonnevier)
Motherless Bad Girl/Bad Girl Mother: Naturalizing and Essentializing Motherhood in Orphan Black (Laine Zisman Newman)
Hell and Back: Helena as Kore and Shaman in Orphan Black (Janet Brennan Croft)
Living in the Panopticon: Resistance to Surveillance in Orphan Black
(Brandi Bradley)
“My story is an embroidery”: Representing Trauma Within the World of Orphan Black (Alyson R. Buckman)
Performing Bodies: Multiplying ­Cyborg-Clones, CGI and the Invisible Special Effect (Bronwen Calvert)
Sheeply Empowerment: An Analysis of M.K.’s Reappropriation
in Orphan Black (Jennifer DeRoss)
cDNA/©DNA in Orphan Black: Eugenics, Surplus Life
and the Castor Virus (Jessica Lee Mathiason)
About the Contributors
Index