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Wood, Aylish. "Technoscience in the cinema : beyond science fiction." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313246.
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Ross, Simon David. "Nostalgia in postmodern science fiction film." Thesis, Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk:8888/cgi-bin/hkuto%5Ftoc%5Fpdf?B23472741.
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Veith, Errol, and n/a. "Screening Science: Contexts, Texts and Science in Fifties Science Fiction Film." Griffith University. School of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, 1999. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20051012.112131.
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Science fiction films may be viewed as existing as threads within a web, and at the same time constituting the web. The metaphor is apt: texts and contexts and their relationship have a difficult accommodation with each other, an interdependent and dynamic relationship. The text is a thread in the web, as are elements of context, yet the threads are in a symbiotic and constantly changing relationship with each other, as the web is constantly in a state of renewal and change. At the same time, the text itself is a web, as are the various contexts. The threads are both ephemeral and fleeting, while incredibly strong. This thesis is about the polysemy of science fiction film: its subject is the films of the fifties that belong to the genre of science fiction. But the area of study began as an investigation of the science in science fiction films; the way in which films construct that science, the end result of that construction and the totality of the discourse of science in relation to other discourses of power and influence. The investigation of those issues involves a multi-layered investigation into science fiction, in a similar way to Tulloch and Alvarado's approach to the Dr Who television series.1 Approaching science fiction films from a perspective of genre, as in chapter one, uncovers a set of arguments about the science in science fiction, as well as establishing the global nature of some science fiction. These concerns lead into the discussion in chapter two of the social and historical context of the fifties, specifically in the US. Science plays a major role in these contexts, in the sense of the importance of science in creating these contexts (from this perspective) as well as the effects of the application of this science. But the historical and cultural contexts tend to suggest that science fiction films are in large part both a response to the social and historical context, and also create that context. This would not be quite accurate: the production of many science fiction films mobilise other arguments, arguments relating to the industry of Hollywood, and the specific industrial context that gave rise to some very financially successful science fiction films, as well as some films where the budget was good for a few days filming. Science and technology are sometimes important elements in this industrial context as well. Part II traces the nature of science in these films, using the contexts in Part I to anchor the science and its implications and effects. Foregrounded is the debate in which science is both key player and, in many cases, antagonist. The debate is traced and the various representations of science and its nature are tracked and highlighted. Science can cause change, by virtue of its nature of uncovering superstition, but the worth or desirability of that change is open to question. The control of science is a related issue. The thesis examines science at a period that saw the efflorescence of science fiction films. The examination of those films tells us a great deal about the concerns of the time, as well as the science that figures so powerfully in the webs of culture of the fifties.
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Kawamoto, Marcia Tiemy Morita. "The question of time in science fiction films." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2016. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/162843.
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Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos LinguÃsticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2016.Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-24T17:56:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 339055.pdf: 2588449 bytes, checksum: d4d00ba9f41706ab7c9defe3cfc2f172 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016
Abstract : Time is a hard-to-define concept in its most fundamental aspects. Different from space, to which it is commonly associated, time cannot be physically grasped, although we do try to measure it. What does not stop it from being simply ubiquitous, since we cannot escape or ignore it. The representation of time in fiction reflects its own social period. Having this in mind, this research understands that time has assumed different meanings in distinct contexts, since it reveals itself as a product of its historical times. Within this, the objective of this dissertation is to investigate time in times of change, understanding how the transitions and intersections of the Modern, Post-Modern and yet without a proper name Post-Postmodern periods affect the concept of time in film production, specifically in science fiction films. This dissertation analyzes science fiction films, since they seem to present a more conflicting and marked tendency in relation to time. Metropolis marks the modernist period with its notion of linear and futuristic time, strongly attached to an idea of industrial capitalism, in which the rhythm of the production conditions the workers. Blade Runner and Twelve Monkeys present a post-modern nostalgic vision of the future with a fragmented time, constructed through the character?s search of a past and identity. Lastly, Source Code and Interstellar seem to join a notion of digital cinema and time, proposing a more flexible temporality. In this last idea, space and time also influence one?s existence, that changes his/her ontology and starts existing in other realities and dimensions.
Tempo é um conceito difÃcil em seus aspectos mais fundamentais. Diferente do conceito de espaço, ao qual ele é comumente associado, o tempo não pode ser fisicamente apanhado, apesar de tentarmos medi-lo. O que não impede que ele seja simplesmente ubÃquo, pois não podemos escapar dele ou ignorá-lo. A representação do tempo em ficção reflete seu tempo social. Com isso em mente, essa pesquisa entende que o tempo tem assumido significados diferentes em contextos distintos, uma vez que se revela como um produto de seu tempo histórico. Em vista disso, o objetivo principal dessa tese é investigar o tempo em tempos de mudança, ao entender como as transições e intersecções dos perÃodos Moderno, Pós-moderno e o ainda sem nome definitivo Pós-Pósmoderno afetam o conceito de tempo na produção fÃlmica, especificamente em filmes de ficção cientÃfica. Essa dissertação analisa filmes de ficção cientÃfica, uma vez que eles parecem apresentar uma tendência mais conflituosa e marcante em relação ao tempo. Metropolis marca o perÃodo modernista com sua noção de tempo linear e futurista, fortemente atrelado a uma ideia de capitalismo industrial, em que o ritmo da produção condiciona os trabalhadores. Blade Runner e Twelve Monkeys apresentam uma visão pós-moderna nostálgica do futuro com um tempo fragmentado construÃdo pela busca de passado e identidade dos personagens. Por último, Source Code e Interstellar parecem unir a noção de cinema digital e de tempo, ao propor uma temporalidade mais flexÃvel. Nesta última ideia, espaço e tempo também influenciam na existência do ser, que muda sua ontologia e passa a existir em outras realidades e dimensões.
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Popovich, George Lee. "Structural analyses of selected modern science-fiction films /." The Ohio State University, 1987. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487329662145685.
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Lammes, Sybille. "In het laboratorium van de science fiction film technowetenschap in vooroorlogse Hollywood films /." [S.l. : Amsterdam : s.n.] ; Universiteit van Amsterdam [Host], 2002. http://dare.uva.nl/document/63401.
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André, Danièle. "Cinéma de science-fiction et sociétés anglophones contemporaines." Paris 3, 1998. http://www.theses.fr/1998PA030108.
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Le but de cette thèse est de montrer que les films de science-fiction peuvent non seulement nous divertir, mais aussi nous faire réfléchir. Le recul pris nous permettra d'appréhender ce que les films de science-fiction des années quatre-vingt laissent transparaitre des sociétés anglophones contemporaines. L’étude de ces films nous apprend qu'ils reflètent les questions que nous nous posons sur la vie quotidienne. Ils dépeignent un monde contrôlé par des groupes économiques et politiques, et menacé par le pouvoir militaire. Toutefois, les films de science-fiction abordent aussi des inquiétudes plus profondes telles que nos idéaux, nos espoirs et nos peurs. Ainsi, ils montrent clairement l'opposition qui existe entre ce que nous aimerions être et ce que nous sommes, et ils nous permettent de mieux comprendre le rôle joué par la religion et par la science. En outre, ils reflètent l'attitude que nous adoptons envers notre environnement, ce que ce dernier révèle de nous-mêmes, et envers les autres. Ils mettent en évidence les changements survenus dans les relations humaines, et la douteuse progression du statut réservé aux femmes dans la société. De plus, nous comprenons que notre spécificité humaine est aussi ce qui nous rend conscients de notre état de mortel, une destinée que nous ne parvenons pas à accepter. Nous ne devons pas oublier que les films de science-fiction sont un divertissement qui nous permet de rêver et de nous amuser. Cependant, ils nous demandent aussi quelle vie nous aimerions avoir; s'ils évoquent un futur déshumanise, ils nous laissent libres de le transformer en un avenir plus souriantThis thesis aims to show that science fiction films are not only entertaining but that they are also thought-provoking. The benefit of hindsight enables us to appreciate contemporary english speaking societies through the glimpses shown by the science fiction films of the eighties. When we take a second look at them, we realise that they reflect our questioning about our daily life. They depict a world controlled by economic and political groups, and jeopardised by the military. However, science fiction films also deal with deeper worries such as our ideals, our hopes and our fears. Thus they clearly show the opposition between what we would like to be and what we are, and help us to understand better the roles of religion and science. Moreover, the films studied also reflect our behaviour towards our environment, and what it reveals about ourselves, and towards others. They also mirror the changes which have occurred in personal relationships, but also show that women's role in society has not really evolved. Science fiction films of the eighties tell us, somehow, that what makes human beings different from other living beings is also what makes us face our more painful reality, death, and our inability to accept it. We must not forget that science fiction films are an entertainment enabling us to dream and enjoy ourselves. However, science fiction films also ask us which life we would like to lead; they may evoke a dehumanized future, but they set us free to act and turn these pessimistic prospects into better ones
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Mather, Philippe. "L'eloignement cognitif : vers une semiologie du cinema de science-fiction." Paris 3, 1995. http://www.theses.fr/1995PA030125.
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Cette these cherche a determiner les modes d'articulation des concepts d'eloignement et de cognition dans un corpus de six films americains communement decrits comme appartenant au genre de la science-fiction, des points de vue syntaxique, semantique et pragmatique. La cognition represente le contenu de la fiction, et plus precisement la connaissance proposee par le biais d'une experience de la pensee s'inspirant de la methode scientifique, experience fictionnelle qui constitue egalement une reflexion critique sur le referent implicite du monde fictif, soit le contexte social et historique de la genese du texte. Quant a l'eloignement, c'est le parametre formel du genre, qui se manifeste d'abord sur un plan macro-discursif : la sciencefiction propose des mondes eloignes, c'est-a-dire differents du monde du lecteur ; le plan micro-duscursif concerne les effets de defamiliarisation crees par diverses figures de styleThis thesis attempts to determine how the twin concepts of cognition and estrangement are articulated in a group of six american films commonly described as belonging to the sciencefiction genre, from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic points of view. Cognition represents the fiction's content, specifically the knowledge offered by a thought experiment inspired by the scientific method, which also constitutes a critical comment on the implied referent, the social and historical context of the fiction's origin. Estrangement is the genre's formal parameter, which first manifests itself on a macro-discursive level : science-fiction creates estranged worlds, that is to say, different from the reader's world ; the micro-discursive level concerns the defamiliarization created by various stylistic figures
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Wong, Yee-ling, and 黃綺玲. "Cyborgs, capitalism, hope: a study of Hong Kong and Hollywood science fiction films." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B50900146.
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Posthuman representations in selected Hollywood and Hong Kong science fiction films show new interconnections in “techno-globalization.” They also exhibit a waning relationship between the “center” and the “margin” of technoculture. This study discusses the relation of technology, humanity, affect, and aesthetics in selective science fiction films produced from 1984 to 2010. The science fiction features were made in the United States and in Hong Kong. They include: The Terminator (1984), Terminator2 (1991), Terminator Salvation (2009), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2002), I Love Maria (1988), Kung Fu Cyborg (2009) and Future X-Cops (2010). In particular, Kung Fu Cyborg merges the popular genre conventions of martial arts and technoculture, and manifests a different imagination at work wherein Hong Kong’s martial arts cinema stands in the place of a scientific-based Western technoculture absent in Hong Kong science fiction films. This study presents several key critical frames elaborated by scholars of science fiction who have assessed the recurrent themes and figures of science fiction films. The discussion of films identifies the resemblances, the differences, and the competitive dynamic between American science fiction films and Hong Kong action features. The absence of utopian or dystopian figures in posthuman filmic representations in Hong Kong cinema is considered an important difference from Western science fiction films. This thesis examines the figure of the cyborg and argues for the important place of emotions and the power to emote and hope as having a complex relationship to technology, humans and humanness. The compassionate cyborg has temporal and moral dimensions relating to belief and religion in this important genre. Thus, this thesis examines the backdrop for science fiction affect, which is one of oppression and crisis that speaks to the conditions of capitalism and modernity. The affective cyborgs make an important figure in the science fiction films that concern the crisis conditions, the appeal of technology, and the conventions of science fiction genre in commercial cinema.published_or_final_version
Comparative Literature
Master
Master of Philosophy
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Smith, Elizabeth Ann. "Ecstatic Truth through Fiction: Re-framing the Science Film to Engage a Wider Audience." Thesis, Montana State University, 2007. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2007/smith/SmithE0507.pdf.
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Americans obtain a majority of their information about science through science films, primarily in the form of documentaries on television. However, despite the recent proliferation of these films, there is much discussion in the science filmmaking community about how ineffective these films have been lately at informing the public about science and compelling viewers to act. It is time to look at the underlying definitions of the genre from a different perspective and determine whether the current standards are the best way to successfully convey messages about science to the widest audience. To explore the possibilities for increasing the effectiveness of science filmmaking, one needs to look at the basic assumptions that come into play during the process of producing science films by re-framing the major components of the science film: goals, subject matter, audience, and format. This new set of paradigms reveals the possibility of another avenue - fiction.
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Clarke, Louisa. "The reproductive body in contemporary science fiction film /." Title page, table of contents and introduction only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arc5985.pdf.
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Jones, Matthew William. "The British reception of 1950s science fiction cinema." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-british-reception-of-1950s-science-fiction-cinema(b180c812-ec8b-4369-afe7-97da1bc14890).html.
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Scholarship on 1950s American science fiction cinema has tended to explore the relationship between these films and their domestic contexts of production and reception. They are often characterised as reflections of US anxieties about communism and nuclear technology. However, many such films were exported to Britain where these concerns were articulated and understood differently. The ways in which this different national context of reception shaped British interpretations of American science fiction cinema of this era has not yet been accounted for. Similarly, although some research has addressed 1950s British science fiction, this scholarship has been comparatively concise and has left gaps in our knowledge about the domestic reception of these films. Unable to draw on a British reception history of domestic and US 1950s science fiction cinema, debates about the genre have sometimes been underpinned by the presumption that western audiences responded to these films in a uniform manner. This thesis seeks to complicate our understanding of the genre by suggesting the specificity of the British reception history of science fiction cinema during the 1950s. The paucity of documentary evidence of British responses to 1950s science fiction films makes an audience study impossible. Within the intellectual framework of the New Film History, this thesis instead employs a contextually- activated approach to reception. Making extensive use of archival sources, newsreels, newspapers, magazines and other such documentary evidence, it explores some of the different contexts in which 1950s science fiction cinema was received in Britain and suggests how these factors might have shaped the interpretation of the genre. The thesis examines the interplay between American and British 1950s science fiction cinema and the British public understanding of communism, immigration, nuclear technology and scientific advancement. It contributes to our knowledge of these films by demonstrating that Britons did not necessarily understand 1950s science fiction cinema in the same way as Americans because they were party to a differently inflected series of public debates. It exposes the flexibility of the metaphors utilised by the genre during this period and their susceptibility to reinterpretation in different national contexts. This research makes visible, in a more extensive manner than has yet been accomplished, the specificity of the British reception history of 1950s science fiction cinema, and thereby provides a means to resist assumptions about the similarity of western audiences during this decade. Its conclusions call for further research into other national reception histories of these films, so that they too are not overshadowed by the better known American history of the genre, and into the possibility that the British reception history of other genres might similarly have been obscured.
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Lee, Pei-Ying. "Le blanc dans le cinéma de science-fiction." Thesis, Paris 1, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PA01H318.
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Le blanc dans le cinéma de science-fiction vibre et scintille, comme une invitation à l’interpréter. À travers le blanc se tisse un lien entre des images sans rapports apparents, et ce type de connexion hétérogène sollicite notre regard d’une manière qui se rapproche d’un montage. Ce regard facilite de plus le détachement des figures blanches de leurs objets référentiels, du contexte du film, et même du contexte du cinéma. Dans cette vision en forme de constellation, révélant des forces liées à la construction, à la destruction et à l’incertitude, le blanc au sein du cinéma de science-fiction, de par sa nature hybride et changeante, transgresse fréquemment les lois établies de l’espace-temps. Véhiculant des sensations et des pensées variées, le blanc reflète d’une manière indirecte et fragmentaire son époque et révèle avec subtilité son passé virtuel, lequel se caractérise par une grande richesse. À la fois couleur du degré zéro et couleur intégrale, porteur de mémoire tout autant que de nouveauté, le blanc, en raison de son caractère minimal et illimité, démontre une capacité à se déplacer librement dans le monde de la science-fiction, voire d’errer dans l’univers des imagesThe colour white in the cinema of science fiction vibrates and sparkles, inviting our interpretations. Unrelated images are linked through whiteness in a form of heterogeneous connection that solicits our gaze as a montage. This look also facilitates the detachment of white figures from their reference objects, the context of the film and even the context of cinema. In this vision of a constellation, which reveals the energies of construction, destruction and uncertainty, whiteness in the cinema of science fiction by its hybrid and changing nature easily transgresses the established laws of space-time. Carrying diverse sensations and thoughts, the colour white reflects its era in a manner at once both indirect and fragmentary, discreetly revealing its virtual but rich past. At once the colour of nothingness and integrating all other colours, saturated with memory but new like a newborn, white with its minimal and unlimited character demonstrates an ability to move freely in the world of science-fiction, and even to wander in the universe of images
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Morelock, Jeremiah. "Elements of Authoritarian Populism in Diseased Others Science Fiction." Thesis, Boston College, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:108572.
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Thesis advisor: Stephen PfohlThis work addresses the globally urgent need to understand the social origins of the recent surge in authoritarian and populist social movements across Europe and the Americas. It analyzes how themes of tribalism, confidence in medical science, and confidence in military violence changed over the years in the retelling of stories in popular culture. The focus is I Am Legend and Day of the Dead – two series of American film remakes of popular science fiction stories that feature pandemic disease and the threat of what are here referred to as “Diseased Others” – the transformed, humanoid Others who have caught the disease. The qualitatively-driven approach exhibits an original methodological contribution to the discipline of sociology, offering several innovations via the coding schemes used and an adaptation of grounded theory for multiple sample sets of films. The data consulted include transcriptions of dialogue from films, reviews in popular news sources, interviews with cast and crew, box office data, and data from the General Social Survey. Within these examples of “Diseased Others” science fiction, themes of tribal morality and confidence in medical science and the military have followed a discernible trajectory. This trajectory is of narrowing moral scope toward loyalty to one’s own in opposition to outside groups, and embracing military violence as a positive solution to threats to the “normal” population. In general, medical science is also increasingly positioned as dangerous and blameworthy (even if also capable of positive intervention). This trajectory thus displays a heightening of what are identified for the present study as three “elements of authoritarian populism”: tribalism, distrust of rational institutions, and willingness to resort to violence
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology
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Konstantinidou, Eirini. "Mnemophrenia : a science fiction film-essay on the future of cinema and artificial memories." Thesis, Brunel University, 2014. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7968.
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“What is more real than the thoughts in your mind?”, “Re/structure your memories, re/construct your reality, re/define yourself”. The foundation of my research is about practising theory instead of theorising practice. My project begins with theory, which then leads to the science fiction film Mnemophrenia that constitutes the practical aspect of it. I attempt to demonstrate how theory and practice can be joined to create a fruitful union, each one feeding the other. In my research, I am inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s idea and use the medium as the message in order to depict and explore how cinema can affect human memory and more specifically create artificial memories and thus contribute to the dissolution of any boundaries between reality and fiction. The key research question that Mnemophrenia explores is: what would happen if in a future postmodern society the Bazinian myth of ‘total’ cinema becomes a reality? If ‘total cinema’ is pure realism and cinema can lead to artificial memories, then artificial memories and pure realism become one and films become artificial memories. Mnemophrenia depicts a different kind of human being or species, a schizophrenic ‘cyborg’ changed from within due to the advancement of virtual reality films which signals the end of cinema as we know it today. Mnemophrenia is about the future of cinema and maintains a horizon of hope that could lead to utopia; it does not discard technology as something evil as many previous science fiction films have done. I am interested in depicting through the film and examining in my thesis the possibility of a society where the dissolution of borders between fiction and reality does not lead to horrific consequences for humanity but instead promotes a potential for a new kind of identity that is an amalgam of real and artificial memories.
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Wynn, Freda A. "Alternative realities/The multiverse a metaphysical conundrum /." unrestricted, 2005. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-155256/.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2005.Title from title screen. Kay Beck, committee chair; Edward J. Friedman, Kathryn H. Fuller, committee members. Electronic text (124 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 17, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-124).
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Lopez, Floriane. "Le simulacre contemporain : corps et identités dans le cinéma de science-fiction." Caen, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013CAEN1697.
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Le cinéma de science-fiction se nourrit des peurs et des fantasmes de la société : il révèle un inconscient collectif à travers un imaginaire qui lui est propre. À la fin du XXe siècle, ce genre tend à éclairer la fascination et l’effroi suscités par le changement de millénaire. Un concept cristallise les passions affectant une société en pleine mutation : le simulacre. De Platon à Baudrillard, la notion traverse les siècles. Ancrée dans un passé philosophique très dense, elle prend une acuité nouvelle avec l’apparition des nouvelles technologies informatiques et des procédés de simulations virtuelles. Prenant des formes plurielles, le simulacre est au cœur des stratégies esthétiques dans des films comme Abre los ojos, Bienvenue à Gattaca ou Fight Club. À partir d’une filmographie volontairement restreinte, nous analyserons les mises en scène du simulacre en évaluant à la fois leurs singularités et leurs résonances au fil des films. Nous observerons par ailleurs comment la notion permet d’interroger les identités et remet en question la définition de l’homme, à la fois dans son environnement - le réel - et dans ce qu’il a de plus intime - son corpsThe science-fiction develops from the fears and the fantasies of the society: it reveals a collective unconscious through its own imagination. The science-fiction underscores fascination and dread of the new millennium. One concept crystallizes the passions that affect a fast-changing society: it’s the simulacra. From Platon to Baudrillard, the notion travelled through down the ages. Embedded in a philosophical past, it takes a new acuteness with the advent of computer technologies and virtual realities. Based on a filmography voluntarily restricted, we will analyze the direction of simulacrum by assessing both their singularities and echos over films. Moreover, we will observe how the notion questions the identities and the definition of human in its environment - the the real and in the most intimate part: its body
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McGinney, William Lawrence. "The Sounds of the Dystopian Future: Music for Science Fiction Films of the New Hollywood Era, 1966-1976." Thesis, connect to online resource, 2009. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-9839.
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Hougron, Alexandre. "L'altérité dans le cinéma américain de science-fiction : relevé et étude des représentations et des significations de l'autre dans le cinéma américain de science-fiction de 1925 à 1995." Paris 3, 1996. http://www.theses.fr/1997PA030009.
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Le propos de cette etude est d'etablir un releve des representations de l'alterite dans le cinema de science-fiction americain de 1925 a 1995 et d'en eclairer les motivations et les significations dans une optique anthropologique, culturelle et esthetique. Comme critere central, l'image de l'autre permet d'aborder tous les stereotypes imaginaires de ce cinema (univers futuristes et utopiques, voyages dans l'espace et le temps, extraterrestres, monstres, robots, mutants) et de proceder sur eux a une recherche des sources. L'histoire sociale et politique des etats-unis ou bien la litterature de science-fiction et l'iconographie des pulp magazines font a l'evidence sentir leur influence, mais ce sont les emprunts culturels de ce cinema a l'univers des mythes et des religions (judeo-christianisme) qui, aussi surprenants soient-ils, constituent la decouverte principale de cette etude. Le cinema de science-fiction americain apparait ainsi comme devant etre non seulement defini par le "phenomene science" (il nait avec la revolution industrielle) mais aussi par de nombreuses references "crypto-religieuses", qui constituent une sorte de contrepoids de l'irrationnel a un cadre pseudo-scientifique et technologique. L'ethologie, la psychanalyse et l'etude des phobies apportent enfin leur lumiere a certains elements qu'une approche par le principe de l'impregnation ou du "leg" culturels ne permet pas d'expliquerThis study intends to note down the representations of alterity in the american science fiction movies from 1925 to 1995 and to shed light on their motivations and significations from an anthropological, cultural and aesthetical point of view. As a central criterion, the image of the other allows to tackle all the imaginary stereotypes of those movies (futurist and utopian worlds, travels beyond time and space, extraterrestrials, monsters, robots, mutant people) and to initiate a research of sources on them. The influence of the social and political history of the united states or the science fiction litterature and the iconography of the pulp magazines is of course quite obvious, but the cultural elements that this specific kind of cinema borrows from the dimension of myths and religions (judeo-christianism) stand, as surprising it may be, for the most important result of this study. The american science fiction movies thus appear to be defined not only by the "phenomenon of science" (science fiction is contemporary with the industrial revolution), but also by the numerous "cryptoreligious" references they contain, a sort of irrational counterweight to their pseudo-scientific and technological framework. Ethology, psychoanalysis and the study of phobia can finally clarify remaining aspects that an approach by the cultural imbuing, not to say heritage cannot explain
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Hagan, Justice M. "Desert Enlightenment: Prophets and Prophecy in American Science Fiction." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1366729757.
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Larrieux, Stephanie F. "Racing the future: Hollywood science fiction film narratives of race." View abstract/electronic edition; access limited to Brown University users, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3319100.
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Fortin, David T. "Architecture and the spectacle of home in science-fiction film." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8724.
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The concept of home has often been recognized as a foundational concept in popular science-fiction (SF) as the point of departure or place of return in the space odyssey, timetravel mission, or heroic quest. Most SF narratives evidently centre on notions of homelessness, homecomings, threats to home or journeys from it. However, independent of the film’s narrative, home is also considered within SF as the place of the audience member, spatially and temporally, the distinction of which is critical for establishing the alien encounter with the putative future world. As a critical genre, SF continues to offer insights into the contemporary milieu that have significant implications for all areas of cultural research and, more specifically, architecture. While architectural literature and practice has confirmed a sustained interest in SF, representations of home are often overlooked in favour of the various innovations and special effects on-screen. It is the intention of the research to elevate the discussion of home in SF from its often abstract engagement by architectural texts, and more specifically question how notions of home are expressed in SF film through the various narratives and designed environments. Thus, the research posits the notion of home as providing the essential link between SF and architecture by establishing a theoretical framework and detailed analyses of four films adapted from the prolific American SF author, Philip K. Dick: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990), Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), and Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly (2006). The research examines science, method, and truth, in relation to the foundations of the SF genre and its various representations of home. Furthermore, by comparing and contrasting modern and postmodern approaches to design, similarities are drawn between the cultural mechanisms of SF imagery and architecture. The research draws from SF theorists such as Darko Suvin, Scott Bukatman, and Vivian Sobchack, as well as authors focussed on notions of home such as Witold Rybczynski, Mary Douglas, Juhanni Pallasmaa, and David Morley. Topics related to contemporary identity construction, gender roles, domestic environments, global mobility and connectivity, spectacle, surveillance, tourism, and technology, are scattered throughout the chapters offering a broad survey of the notion of home as represented in contemporary SF with the intent of generating further architectural discussion.
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Torres, Sandy. "Le monde du film : étude sociologique du cinema de science-fiction comme forme de connaissance du temps." Toulouse 2, 1996. http://www.theses.fr/1996TOU20069.
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L'étude sociologique des représentations du temps qui émanent du cinéma de science-fiction amène à explorer un domaine empirique encore peu défriché, celui du monde du film situé entre la création et la réception des œuvres. Tel est le défi que tente de relever cette recherche. Les films appartenant à ce genre cinématographique laissent filtrer des valeurs modernes tant au plan des thèmes abordés qu'au plan procédural de la mise en récit et de la mise en images. Notre objectif consiste à identifier les règles du jeu de la mise en scène grâce auxquelles, depuis le début du vingtième siècle, la science-fiction façonne et montre du temps afin d'y déceler les traces d'une rationalité, ou d'une façon de penser, caractéristique de cette phase de la modernité. Notre analyse porte sur quarante-trois films de science-fiction produits entre 1912 et 1993, dont l'intrigue développe la thématique du temps. Au-delà de l'étude des scenarios, c'est la relation entre la représentation cinématographique du temps et un ensemble de connaissances sur le temps qui est en jeu, soit la nature des liens qui se tissent entre l'univers de la fiction et un contexte socioculturel. Notre approche du cinéma cherche à se distinguer des interprétations qui considèrent le film comme un reflet, ou un miroir plus ou moins déformant, de même qu'elle évite de mettre en avant les homologies structurelles qu'il peut entretenir avec la réalité. En fait, tout un jeu d'emprunts et de références est a l'œuvre lors de la mise en scène, impliquant aussi bien la mobilisation que la création de connaissances, de telle sorte que le film est un lieu où s'invente un nouveau monde : le monde du filmBetween the creative process and the reception by the spectators, the main challenge of this thesis is to study the world of film by itself. We seek to understand how, since the beginning of the twentieth century, science fiction shapes and presents knowledge of time intimately related to a modern rationality, or a modern way of thinking. Science fiction cinema is part of modernity, but it renews the knowledges about the modern temporality, transforming them through the representation process. To achieve our goal, we analyze forty three science fiction films produced between 1912 and 1993 and which scenarios are precisely based on a reflexion about time. The interest behind such a study is to clarify the relation between cinematographic representation of time and several orders of knowledge about time; to describe the links woven between the universe of fiction and a sociocultural context. Our approach is designed in such a way that we can avoid to consider film as a reflection, or a mirror more or less faithful to reality, or again as a structural transposition of some aspects of reality. Through films production, different uses of references are made creating a whole new world of meanings which is the world of film
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Fitting, Jessica. "Attack of the Fallen! Cinematic Portrayals of Fallen Angels in Post 9/11 Science Fiction Film." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2010. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/2.
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Abstract: The science fiction films which feature the angel Gabriel (The Prophecy (1995), Van Helsing (2004), Constantine (2005), Gabriel (2007), and Legion (2010)) represent a trend in exploring specific socio-cultural issues of America. All of these films explore fears over the loss of faith in American culture in a post 9/11 society. They are comparable to the ways in which science fiction films of the 1950’s addressed fears of the Cold War. By utilizing the alien invasion plot structure from the 50’s, contemporary plots have a pre-defined structure and film language in which to explore the themes of a crisis of faith. The fallen angels featured in all these films have their textual basis in the apocalyptic Jewish text of 1 Enoch, which presents an alternate origin of evil tale to the one found in the Christian Bible, which attributes to wicked fallen angels and provides the religious archetypal themes, moral basis and story ark for the fallen angels of the films. Furthermore, the films evoke an “uncanny Other” through the use of the angel Gabriel, who is a familiar Christian figure but who is uncanny in his modern portrayals, allowing frightening fears of the loss of faith and Christian identity to be explored through a familiar figure. Finally, the fears of encountering a “Muslim Other” in a post 9/11 world, and the millennial fears of uncertainty, are the cultural factors that lead to this crisis of faith present in all of these films.
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Rivière, Nathalie. "Le cinéma américain de science-fiction de 1968 à 2001 : prospective et perspectives." Caen, 2007. http://www.theses.fr/2007CAEN1474.
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D’où venons-nous ? Qui sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ? Ces trois questions existentielles sous-tendent le film de Stanley Kubrick, 2001, A Space Odyssey. Ce récit résume un siècle de science-fiction à travers ses thèmes majeurs comme la conquête de l’espace, la recherche d’une intelligence non terrestre, la technologie, la robotisation, le désir de surpasser le créateur qu’il s’agisse de l’homme ou de Dieu lui-même, ou encore la solitude de l’homme face à l’immensité de l’univers. L’homme est le sujet de 2001, A Space Odyssey. De ses origines à son avenir, Kubrick nous montre son évolution. Plus largement, il nous parle de la vie, celle que l’homme pourrait rencontrer dans l’espace, ou celle qui pourrait venir à lui, sur la Terre. 2001, A Space Odyssey, récit moderne, pose ainsi, dès 1968, les fondements de la science-fiction contemporaine. C’est pourtant moins par sa thématique métaphysique que par sa maîtrise cinématographiques et les technologies dont il use que Stanley Kubrick frappe le public et la critique. Il marquera ainsi la génération de cinéastes apparus dans les années 70 parmi lesquels Lucas, Spielberg, Dante, Gilliam ou Cameron, de même que la suivante, celle des années 90, à laquelle appartiennent Del Toro, Niccol, Natali, Jackson, les frères Wachowski. Avec ces cinéastes, c’est aussi l’infographie qui a intégré le cinéma. L’image et l’imagination n’ont désormais plus de limites. Le cinéaste est devenu un infographiste. L’image de synthèse est devenue nécessaire à la pré production comme au financement du film. Influencés par l’oeuvre de Kubrick, les écrivains ont, à leur tour, donné un nouveau souffle à la science-fiction. Avant les années 60, ce que l’on pouvait encore appeler des sous-genres comptaient déjà la fantasy, l’utopie, le space opera et l’anticipation. Dans les années 70, de nouveaux motifs apparaissent parmi lesquels l’écologie, l’informatique, la musique qui vont conduire, dans les années 80-90, à l’éclosion de nouvelles tendances, ou plus exactement de nouvelles mouvances tant elles évoluent, telles que le cyberpunk, le Steampunk, la hard science, la speculative fiction… Mais ce qui apparaît surtout à travers cette étude, c’est que la science-fiction, qu’elle évoque un passé qui aurait pu être, un présent alternatif, ou un futur hypothétique, parle de l’homme, de ses préoccupations, de ses désillusions et de ses espoirs, dans son présent et dans sa réalité.
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Roy, André 1963. "Une lecture politique de Star trek /." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61800.
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Turner, Dean. "An assessment of the development of the female in commercial science fiction film." Thesis, University of Hull, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.301495.
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Cornejo, Yvonne Frances. "The embodiment of trauma in science fiction film : a case study of Argentina." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/32515.
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A small number of articles and book chapters have analysed post-dictatorship Argentine science fiction film from a historico-political perspective, tracing embedded references to the 1976-1983 dictatorship and showing the ways in which films such as Hombre mirando al sudeste (Subiela, 1986), Moebius (Mosquera, 1996), La sonámbula (Spiner, 1998) or La Antena (Sapir, 2007) address the themes of political repression and violence through metaphor and connotation, under cover of a fantastic narrative. My approach complements these readings, extending the corpus and outlining the first book-length study of Argentine science fiction film. Contesting positions held by certain critics that science fiction is inadequate in terms of dealing with traumatic historical issues, and aiming to move beyond seeing the genre only as a ‘camouflage device’ which has enabled authors to hide their message within a fantasy framework under the threat of persecution, this thesis argues that science fiction film fills a gap where representations of trauma memory are concerned. On the one hand, its narrative strategies and tropes are highly suited to such representations. On the other, its status as popular culture places it on the outer margins of a political and cultural framework that has consistently denied the atrocities perpetrated in a totalitarian context and sought to impose a unilateral, hegemonic version of history. In the course of the study I draw on the fields of science fiction, psychology, and Latin American studies in a cross-disciplinary approach.
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Alphin, Caroline Grey. "Living on the Edge of Burnout: Defamiliarizing Neoliberalism Through Cyberpunk Science Fiction." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/88796.
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A dominant trend in cyberpunk scholarship draws from Fredric Jameson's diagnosis of postmodernism as the logic of late capitalism, using Jameson's spatial pastiche, schizophrenic temporality, and waning of affect, along with Jameson's characterization of Baudrillard's simulacrum to interpret postmodern cultural artifacts. For many cultural critics, the city of cyberpunk is thoroughly postmodern because parallels can be drawn between the cyberpunk city and the postmodern condition. However, very little work has considered the ways in which cyberpunk can defamiliarize the necro-spatial and necro-temporal logic of neoliberalism. This project moves away from more traditional disciplinary aesthetic methods of analyzing power and urban systems, such as interpretation and representation. And, it problematizes the biopolitical present in three different ways. First, by weaving in and out of an analysis of the narratives, discourses, and spatio-temporalities of cyberpunk and neoliberalism, I seek to produce epistemological interferences within these genres/disciplines, and thus, to disrupt the conceptual and lived biopolitical status-quo of late-capitalism. The goal is to open the door for discomfort with and a critical awareness of the necrotic conditions of competition by highlighting the fictive nature of neoliberalism. Second, this study problematizes accelerationism as a viable alternative to leftist politics and suggests in the end that accelerationism is a form of neoliberal resilience. It does this through an analysis of the biohacker that reframes this subject in terms of accelerationism and the logic of intensity. I argue that the biohacker is the accelerationist subject Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek advocate for in their "Accelerationist Manifesto," suggesting that this accelerationist subject is, in the end, a neoliberal subject that fits easily within the conditions of competition. This study argues that the biohacker in its numerous forms reflects an underlying pure neoliberalism at work within accelerationism and its neoliberal governmentalities. I suggest that far from being an alternative to leftist politics, accelerationism may further the goals of neoliberalism in its desire to accelerate to a purified market space. And, finally, this study works towards offering a biopolitics that theorizes death in terms of ordinariness and suggests that biopolitics is still a useful analytic within neoliberalism. In other words, Foucault's biopolitics can do more than theorize a genealogy of biological racism and genocide. Rather than advocate for moving beyond biopolitics, this study argues instead that neoliberal biopolitics can still be understood in terms of Foucault's analytic, and that perhaps, we need to disentangle Foucault's work from Achille Mbembe's "Necropolitics."Doctor of Philosophy
A dominant trend in cyberpunk scholarship draws from Fredric Jameson’s diagnosis of postmodernism as the logic of late capitalism, using Jameson’s spatial pastiche, schizophrenic temporality, and waning of affect, along with Jameson’s characterization of Baudrillard’s simulacrum to interpret postmodern cultural artifacts. For many cultural critics, the city of cyberpunk is thoroughly postmodern because parallels can be drawn between the cyberpunk city and the postmodern condition. However, very little work has considered the ways in which cyberpunk can defamiliarize the necro-spatial and necro-temporal logic of neoliberalism. This project moves away from more traditional disciplinary aesthetic methods of analyzing power and urban systems, such as interpretation and representation. It problematizes the biopolitical present in three different ways. First, by weaving in and out of an analysis of the narratives, discourses, and spatio-temporalities of cyberpunk and neoliberalism, I seek to produce epistemological interferences within these genres/disciplines, and thus, to disrupt the conceptual and lived biopolitical status-quo of late-capitalism. Second, this study problematizes accelerationism as a viable alternative to leftist politics and suggests in the end that accelerationism is a form of neoliberal resilience. And, finally, this study works towards offering a biopolitics that theorizes death in terms of ordinariness and suggests that biopolitics is still a useful analytic within neoliberalism. Methodologically, the project utilizes an interdisciplinary approach, pulling from political theory, genre studies, discourse analysis, and digital ethnographic research. Professionals and scholars interested in contesting neoliberalism will benefit from this study as it offers ways to problematize neoliberalism’s reality construction.
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Marburger, Anna C. "Queer Content in Science Fiction Allegory and Analogue: Is It In Disguise?" Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/609.
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This thesis performs a textual analysis of two for-profit science fiction texts in which the authors implanted queer content: Bryan Singer's X-Men films and James Robert's Transformers comic series, "More Than Meets the Eye". The argument incorporates queer (referring to attraction and gender variance) media representation and western identity politics lenses into its critique.
By interrogating reality through the masquerade of an impossible universe, science fiction affects how subversive a text can be. When authors designate the natural and the unnatural in a strange universe, they designate what and who belongs in our society. Whatever they imagine has an effect on our reality.
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Cornea, Christine. "Performing cyborgs." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.364752.
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Lahti, Aron. "Artificially yours : En studie av tre konstruerade kvinnor i 2010-talets science fiction-film." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för film och litteratur (IFL), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-85351.
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Artificiella kvinnor har porträtterats efter vissa tematiska utgångspunkter genom kulturhistorien, där Ovidius Pygmalion-myt varit en dominerande tematik. Frågan om artificiella människor är också tätt förknippad med science fiction-genren, och även där har bilden om den ensamme mannen som skapar sig en kvinna ofta återkommit. I denna uppsats jämförs tre science fiction-filmer från 2010-talet - Her (Spike Jonze, 2013), Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) och Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) - för att utröna hur artificiell femininitet konstruerad av män tar sig uttryck: vilken tematik som är jämförbar med äldre porträtteringar av artificiella kvinnor, och vad dessa samtida inkarnationer kan säga om heteronormativitet inom science fiction-genren i dag och i framtiden. Denna analys görs dels mot bakgrund av nyckelverk inom litteratur och film, delvis genom begrepp som performativitet och andrafiering inom genus- och queerteori.
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Warwick, Harry. "The aesthetics of enclosure : dystopia and dispossession in the 1980s Hollywood science-fiction film." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2018. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/427159/.
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As an increasing body of historical and economic scholarship attests, the processes Marx placed under the heading of 'primitive accumulation', and which he saw as the precondition of capitalism, continue today in a particularly intense form. If Marx's main example in Capital, Volume 1 (1867) was the enclosure of English land from the late fifteenth century, now scholars can point to the expansion of intellectual property rights, the privatisation of water and other public services, the sale of the US national forests, the imposition of 'structural adjustment programmes', and the war in Afghanistan as so many 'new enclosures'-efforts to bring ever greater zones of human activity within the ambit of capitalist production. Yet what remains unexamined in this still-growing literature is how the new enclosures have been represented in the sphere of culture. Have cultural forms been able to register these new expropriations? If so, how have they depicted a process that is pervasive, but whose forms of appearance are so diverse? This thesis endeavours to answer such questions through the analysis of five major Hollywood science-fiction films of the 1980s: Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982), David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983), and Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). It argues that, taken together, these films develop an 'aesthetic of enclosure': a series of representational strategies that make enclosure visible. Typically understood by scholars as a critical and historicising genre, the science-fiction film is well positioned to detect, examine, and challenge capitalism's renewed efforts to privatise and dispossess.
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Dedman, Stephen. "Techronomicon (novel) ; and The weapon shop : the relationship between American science fiction and the US military (dissertation)." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0093.
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Techronomicon Techronomicon is a science fiction novel that examines far-future military actions from several different perspectives. Human beings have colonized several planets with help from the enigmatic and more technologically advanced Zhir, who gave spaceships and habitable worlds to those they deemed suitable and their descendants. The Joint Expeditionary Force is the military arm of the Universal Faith, called in when conflicts arise that the Faith decides are beyond the local government and militia and require their intervention. Leneveldt and Roader are JEF officers assigned to Operation Techronomicon, investigating what seems to be a Zhir-built defence shield around the planet Lassana. Another JEF company sent to Kalaabhavan after the murder of the planets Confessor-General loses its CO to a land-mine, and Lieutenant Hellerman reluctantly accepts command. Chevalier, a civilian pilot, takes refugees fleeing military-run detention camps on Ararat to a biological research station on otherwise uninhabited Lila. The biologists on Lila discover a symbiote that enables humans to photosynthesize, which comes to the attention of Operation Techronomicon and the JEF's Weapons Research Division. Leneveldt and Roeder, frustrated by the lack of progress on Lassana, are sent to Lila to detain the biologists, who flee into the swamps. Hellerman's efforts to restore peace on Kalaabhavan are frustrated by the Confessors, and his company finds itself besieged by insurgents. The novel explores individuals' motives for choosing or rejecting violence and/or military service; the lessons they learn about themselves and their enemies; and the possible results of attempts to forcibly suppress ideas.
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Toker, Gulen. "Understanding And Demonstrating The Contribution Of Objects To The Construction Of The Idea Of Future In Science Fiction Films." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609519/index.pdf.
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The science fiction cinema is often concerned about future, and presents to its audience possible alternatives for it. Each science fiction film about the future constructs a different idea in the audience&rsquos mind and supports a currently existing ideology at the same time. The science fiction genre extrapolates and speculates about future which results in a new world: Aliens, androids or clones become participants of this world, intergalactic federations regulate diplomatic relationships or natural disasters endanger the whole humankind. The indispensable factor in every case is that new objects surround the future. They are extrapolated or speculated as well from the objects of today in order to fit to and satisfy the needs of the future world of the science fiction film. The ideas about the future presented in the film are supported by the material existence of these future objects. This study demonstrates the ideas and ideologies in respect to future in the science fiction cinema and investigates how the future objects contribute to constructing them.
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Green, Caroline Ann. ""She has to be controlled" : exploring the action heroine in contemporary science fiction cinema." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3052.
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In this dissertation I explore a number of contemporary science fiction franchises in order to ascertain how the figure of the action heroine has evolved throughout her recent history. There has been a tendency in film criticism to view these strong women as ‘figuratively male’ and therefore not ‘really’ women, which, I argue, is largely due to a reliance on the psychoanalytic paradigms that have dominated feminist film theory since its beginnings. Building on Elisabeth Hills’s work on the character of Ellen Ripley of the Alien series, I explore how notions of ‘becoming’ and the ‘Body without Organs’ proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari can be activated to provide a more positive set of readings of active women on screen. These readings are not limited by discussions of sex or gender, but discuss the body in terms of its increased capacities as it interacts with the world around it. I do not argue for a Deleuzian analysis of cinema as such, because this project is concerned with aspects of representation which did not form part of Deleuze’s philosophy of cinema. Rather I use Deleuze and Guattari’s work to explore alternative ways of reading the active women these franchises present and the benefits they afford. Through these explorations I demonstrate, however, that applying the Deleuzoguattarian ‘method’ is a potentially risky undertaking for feminist theory. Deconstructing notions of ‘being’ and ‘identity’ through the project of becoming may have benefits in terms of addressing ‘woman’ beyond binaristic thought, but it may also have negative consequences. What may be liberating for feminist film theory may be also be destructive. This is because through becoming we destabilise a position from which to address potentially ideologically unsound treatments of women on screen.
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Döring, Lutz. "Erweckung zum Tod : eine kritische Untersuchung zu Funktionsweise, Ideologie und Metaphysik der Horror- und Science-Fiction-Filme Alien 1-4 /." Würzburg : Königshausen und Neumann, 2006. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2756348&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Kast, Corona. "Die Entwicklung des Frauenbildes im Science-Ficiton-Film eine Analyse anhand ausgewählter Beispiele /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2003. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB11675565.
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Davis, Gabriel. "Distant Stars Become Future Homes: The Close Relationship of Interstellar Between Hard Science-Fiction and Spectacle." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2021. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/618.
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Hard Science-fiction shares a close relationship with the element of spectacle. This is especially apparent in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014), a film based in realistic science and emotional appeal. Nolan makes use of creating a team comprised of creative minds with different backgrounds. This includes theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, co-writer Jonathan Nolan, and composer Hans Zimmer. Together, the four develop a film that focuses on three main facets of science: time dilation, black holes, and dimensions. Incorporating these elements based in the historical world gives Interstellar its classification as hard science-fiction, a genre based more solidly in realistic science than classical science-fiction. Thorne serves as an executive producer and advisor to all matters scientific, Zimmer composes the score to accompany and intensify the moments of spectacle, and the Nolan brothers serve to create the plot behind Interstellar. The film’s spectacle can be seen throughout, notably in the “Miller’s Planet” and “Gargantua” scenes. Nolan also incorporates Welsh Poet Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” to exemplify the film’s theme of perseverance against increasing odds. It is through these elements that Interstellar serves itself as an exemplary film for showcasing the relationship between the nature of hard science-fiction and spectacle.
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Wagner, Carsten. "Sie kommen! Und ihr seid die Nächsten! politische Feindbilder in Hollywoods Horror- und Science-Fiction-Filmen." Marburg Tectum-Verl, 2009. http://d-nb.info/999258834/04.
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Ruben, Jennifer Lynn. "Illusionary Strength; An Analysis of Female Empowerment in Science Fiction and Horror Films in Fatal Attraction, Aliens, and The Stepford Wives." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1355753729.
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Achouche, Mehdi. "L'Utopisme technologique dans la science-fiction hollywoodienne, 1982-2010 : transhumanisme, posthumanité et le rêve de "l'homme-machine"." Phd thesis, Université de Grenoble, 2011. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00779615.
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La technologie et le progrès technologique occupent une place centrale dans l'histoire et dans l'imaginaire américain. En même temps que la Révolution Industrielle apparaissent aux États-Unis les premières réelles expressions d'un utopisme technologique loin de se confiner à la littérature ou à la seule fiction - la nation et le monde pourront bientôt être transformés pour le meilleur par la technologie américaine. La science-fiction s'emparera bientôt de l'idée, traduisant aujourd'hui encore un rêve et des valeurs étroitement associés à l'identité et au projet national et reposant au cœur de l'imaginaire du pays. Le techno-utopisme contemporain, s'il s'appuie sur la " convergence NBIC " (Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno), tend cependant à se focaliser sur les transformations du corps humain lui-même. Le mouvement transhumaniste, qui s'attend à une transformation radicale du monde (la Singularité) grâce notamment aux nanotechnologies et aux intelligences artificielles, met ainsi l'accent sur l'impact que pourraient avoir ces technologies, ainsi que les biotechnologies (ingénierie génétique, cellules souches, clonage), sur un corps et une conscience améliorés ou " augmentés ", ainsi que sur l'organisation sociale de demain. Tant est si bien qu'on ne pourrait bientôt plus parler d'humanité mais bien de posthumanité. Le cinéma de science-fiction hollywoodien, en tant que mode d'expression culturel central à la culture américaine moderne, met lui-même en scène et réfléchit ces rêves de sublimation et ces cauchemars de déshumanisation. Les films du corpus (les Tron, RoboCop, Star Trek First Contact et Insurrection, Gattaca, la trilogie Matrix, The 6th Day, The Island, The Surrogates, Terminator IV, les deux Iron Man, Avatar, notamment) proposent leurs propres versions successives des dilemmes liés aux avancées de demain mais aussi à l'interdépendance qui lie déjà les humains à leurs machines. Les acteurs en sont les machines elles-mêmes, ceux qui les contrôlent (le gouvernement fédéral, l'armée, les multinationales), les techno-utopistes et leurs ennemis Luddites, les scientifiques, les ingénieurs et les hackers, mais aussi une humanité fascinée presque malgré elle par la promesse technologique. Si cette dernière est souvent caricaturée, à Hollywood même, en un conflit opposant " technophiles " et " technophobes ", les choses sont, même au cinéma, loin d'être aussi simples, en particulier depuis les années 1980. Et si la libération de l'oppression technologique passait par la technologie elle-même ?
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Geef, Dennis [Verfasser]. "Late Capitalism and Its Fictitious Future(s) : The Postmodern, Science Fiction, and the Contemporary Dystopia / Dennis Geef." Bonn : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1077265468/34.
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Rodriguez, Nogueira François. "La société totalitaire dans le récit d'anticipation dystopique, de la première moitié du XXè siècle, et sa représentation au cinéma." Thesis, Nancy 2, 2009. http://www.theses.fr/2009NAN21030/document.
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La tradition utopique a longtemps entretenu le rêve d'une société idéale située dans un ailleurs, un u-- topos, le "lieu qui n'est pas" dans L'Utopie de Thomas More. La représentation de ces utopies est indissociable d'un facteur déterminant pour la construction d'un monde meilleur : le progrès. Ainsi, cette tradition se caractérise par l'accent prométhéen d'une telle entreprise, c'est des mains de l'homme que sera façonnée cette nouvelle société. Cependant, le point de vue sur la possibilité d'une société idéale va progressivement s'infléchir, notamment au cours du XIXe siècle, pour s'inverser d'une manière radicale au début du XXe siècle. Nommée anti-utopie ou contre-utopie, cette désillusion souligne l'impuissance de l'homme et le rôle ambigu du progrès pour inventer la société parfaite. Parfois utilisée comme synonyme d'anti-utopie, la dystopie caractérise plus précisément les textes qui décrivent une société dirigée par un système d?oppression absolu, fondé sur un État omnipotent, et presque toujours organisé scientifiquement. Ainsi, des dysfonctionnements de la cité du futur dans Le Monde tel qu'il sera d'Émile Souvestre, en 1846, à l'État Unique dans Nous autres de Evguéni Zamiatine, écrit en 1920, la dystopie évolue en prenant la forme du récit de science-fiction, et en particulier celle de l'anticipation. Nous verrons, notamment, comment l'utopie prend place dans les oeuvres de Jules Verne et H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, très inspiré par Wells, est le premier grand écrivain du XXe siècle à se servir de la dystopie pour décrire les attributs de la société totalitaire. Ainsi, si notre démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, à désigner les auteurs et textes qui ont participé à l'émergence de la dystopie, notre analyse portera essentiellement sur Nous autres et trois autres romans fondateurs de la dystopie au XXe siècle : Le Meilleur des mondes d'Aldous Huxley, publié en 1932, 1984 de George Orwell, publié en 1948 et Fahrenheit 451 de Ray Bradbury, publié en 1953. Nous étudierons le phénomène totalitaire selon les interprétations qu'en font nos auteurs. Il sera donc question de la collectivisation de l'individu, de la propagande ou du rôle de la science dans l'organisation de la société totalitaire. Mais il s'agira aussi de montrer comment nos dystopies illustrent le combat de l'art contre l'entropie totalitaire, et l'engagement de leurs auteurs dans un véritable discours politique. Enfin, il apparaît essentiel de décrire ce qui apparaît peut-être comme la forme la plus efficace de la représentation de la dystopie : le film de science-fiction. Nous verrons pourquoi le roman dystopique peine de plus en plus à soutenir la comparaison face à l'immédiateté du langage de l'image animéeThe utopian tradition a long time maintained the dream an ideal society located in one elsewhere, a u-topos, the "place which is not" in the Utopia of Thomas More. The representation of these Utopias is indissociable of a determining factor for the construction of a better world: progress. Thus, this tradition is characterized by the Promethean accent of such a company, they are hands of the man who this new society will be worked. However, the point of view on the possibility of an ideal society gradually will inflect, in particular during the 19th century, to be reversed in a radical way at the beginning of the 20th century. Named anti-Utopia or against-Utopia, this disillusion underlines the impotence of the man and the ambiguous role of progress to invent the perfect society. Sometimes used as synonym of anti-Utopia, the dystopia more precisely characterizes the texts which describe a society directed by an absolute system of oppression, based on an omnipotent State, and almost always scientifically organized. Thus, abnormal operations of the city of the future in The World such as it will be of Emile Souvestre, in 1846, in the State Unique in Us of Evgueni Zamiatine, written in 1920, the dystopia evolves by taking the form of the account of science fiction, and in particular that of anticipation. We will see, in particular, how the Utopia takes seat in works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Zamiatine, very inspired by Wells, is the first great writer of the 20th century to be made use of the dystopia to describe the attributes of the totalitarian society. Thus, if our step consists, initially, to appoint the authors and texts which took part in the emergence of the dystopia, our analysis will primarily carry on Us and three other Romance founders of the dystopia at the 20th century: Brave New World of Aldous Huxley, published into 1932, 1984 of George Orwell, published in 1948 and Fahrenheit 451 of Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. We will study the totalitarian phenomenon according to interpretations that make our authors of them. It will be thus a question of the collectivization of the individual, the propaganda or the role of science in the organization of the totalitarian society. But it will also be a question of showing how our dystopies illustrates the combat of art against the totalitarian entropy, and the engagement of their authors in a true political discourse. Lastly, it appears essential to describe what perhaps appears as the most effective form of the representation of the dystopia: the science fiction film. We will see why the novel dystopic sorrow more and more support the comparison face to the immediacy of the language of the moving image
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Lan, Kuo-Wei. "Technofetishism of posthuman bodies : representations of cyborgs, ghosts, and monsters in contemporary Japanese science fiction film and animation." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2012. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/40524/.
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The thesis uses a feminist approach to explore the representation of the cyborg in Japanese film and animation in relation to gender, the body, and national identity. Whereas the figure of the cyborg is predominantly pervasive in cinematic science fiction, the Japanese popular imagination of cyborgs not only crosses cinematic genre boundaries between monster, disaster, horror, science fiction, and fantasy but also crosses over to the medium of animation. In regard to the academic research on Japanese cinema and animation, there is a serious gap in articulating concepts such as live-action film, animation, gender, and the cyborg. This thesis, therefore, intends to fill the gap by investigating the gendered cyborg through a feminist lens to understand the interplay between gender, the body and the cyborg within historical-social contexts. Consequently, the questions proposed below are the starting point to reassess the relationship between Japanese cinema, animation, and the cyborg. How has Japanese popular culture been obsessed with the figure of the cyborg? What is the relationship between Japanese live-action film and Japanese animation in terms of the popular imagination of the cyborg? In particular, how might we discuss the representation of the cyborg in relation to the concept of national identity and the associated ideology of “Japaneseness”, within the framework of Donna Haraway's influential cyborg theory and feminist theory? The questions are addressed in the four sections of the thesis to explore the representation of the gendered cyborg. First, I outline the concept of the cyborg as it has been developed in relation to notions of gender and the ‘cyborg' in Western theory. Secondly, I explore the issues in theorising the science fiction genre in Japanese cinema and animation and then address the problem of defining science fiction in relation to the phenomenon of the cyborg's genre-crossing. Finally, I provide a contextualising discussion of gender politics and gender roles in Japan in order to justify my use of Western feminist theory as well as discuss the strengths and limitations of such an approach before moving, in the remainder of the thesis, to an examination of a number of case studies drawn from Japanese cinema and animation.
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Wälivaara, Josefine. "Dreams of a subversive future : sexuality, (hetero)normativity, and queer potential in science fiction film and television." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-62893.
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The aim of the thesis is to explore depictions of sexuality in popular science fiction film and television through a focus on storytelling, narrative, characters and genre. The thesis analyses science fiction as a film and television genre with a focus on the conventions, interpretations, and definitions of genre as part of larger contexts. Central to the argumentation is films and television series, from Star Wars and Star Trek, to Firefly and Torchwood. The approach allows a consideration of how the storytelling conventions of science fiction are, and have been, affected by its contexts. Through a consideration of a historical de-emphasis on narrative complexity and character formation in science fiction, the thesis displays and analyses a salient tendency towards juvenile and heteronormative narratives. This tendency is represented by a concept that I call the Star’verses, through which this dominant idea of science fiction as a juvenile, techno-centred, masculine, and heteronormative genre became firmly established. This generic cluster has remained a dominant influence on science fiction film and television since the 1980s. However, as argued, a major discursive shift took place in science fiction at the turn of the millennium. This adult turn in science fiction film, and television in particular, is attributed to contextual changes, but also to the influence of television dramaturgy. It explains why science fiction in the 21st century is not as unfamiliar with depictions of sexuality as its predecessors were. This turn does not signal a total abandonment of what the Star’verses represent; it instead contributes to a change to this dominant idea of the generic identity of science fiction. While sexuality has been disassociated from much science fiction, it is also argued that the science fiction narrative has extensive queer potential. Generic conventions, such as aliens and time travel, invite both queer readings and queer storytelling; the latter however is seldom used, especially in science fiction film. A majority of the examples of science fiction narrative that use this queer potential can be found in television. In cinema, however, this progression is remarkably slow. Therefore, the thesis analyses whether the storytelling techniques of Hollywood cinema, to which science fiction film owes much of its dramaturgy, could be considered heteronormative. A comparison is made to television dramaturgy in order to display the possibilities for the serialised, character-focused science fiction narrative. Ultimately, the thesis investigate the possibility for subversive storytelling and whether a normative use of dramaturgy needs to be overthrown in order to tell a subversive story.
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Echterbruch, Maren. "Ein Filmereignis im Medienverbund die Vermarktung von StarWars Episode I - Die dunkle Bedrohung und die Relevanz der Merchandising-Produkte für Öffentliche Bibliotheken /." [S.l. : s.n.], 2003. http://www.bsz-bw.de/cgi-bin/xvms.cgi?SWB11675554.
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Bensimon, Serge. "Expériences ovniologiques : influences des médias cinématographiques et corrélats de la personnalité fantasque et des dimensions de la conscience." Master's thesis, Université Laval, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11794/41666.
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Cette étude examine deux théories explicatives du phénomène des témoignages ovniologiques, à savoir, la thèse de la contamination culturelle (Klass, 1974), attribuant les témoignages à l'influence de la science-fiction, incluant par extension la notion que l'expérience de visionnement d’un film de science-fiction induirait un état général de conscience modifié similaire à celui rapporté par les sujets ovniologiques, et celle de la théorie de la personnalité fantasque (Wilson et Barber, 1983) associant les prétendants aux expériences ovniologiques à une série de caractéristiques relevant d’un diagnostic de personnalité fantasque (Bartholomew, Basterfield, et Howard, 1991). Quatre groupes de sujets, dont deux rapportant des expériences ovniologiques de nature non-intense (n = 20),ou intense (n ~ 7), un groupe visionnant un film de science-fiction (n-28), et un groupe contrôle (n=30), ont complété le PCI (“Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory“; Fekala,1991b), évaluant plusieurs composantes de la conscience, et le LPF (Bartholomew, Basterfield, et Howard, 1991; Nickell, 1996), mesurant divers traits fantasques. Les résultats observés vont à l’encontre de l'hypothèse de contamination culturelle, et n marquent pas, non plus, la présence, chez les sujets visionnant le film de science-fiction, d’un état général de conscience modifié. Seuls les sujets ovniologiques rapportant des expériences intenses exhibent un état global de conscience modifié, et plus spécifiquement, des altérations aux niveaux de la conscience, de la perception temporelle, de la mémoire, de la tension intérieure, et des affects négatifs. De plus, les résultats démontrent que les caractéristiques fantasques évaluées ne sont pas spécifiques aux sujets ovniologiques intenses, ou non-intenses. Ces résultats sont discutés à la lumière des hypothèses à l’étude.
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Smith, Tonja. "Bioethics for the masses the negotiation of bioethics in film and fiction /." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1798481011&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Wynn, Freda A. "Alternative Realities/The Multiverse: A Metaphysical Conundrum." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2006. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_theses/4.
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Films of every era reflect the concerns and fears of Western society. The acceleration of technology, the loss of a concrete world, the uneasy relationship with humans and ever increasing complex machines are inducing a fear of losing the ability to discern reality. The reality of ideas from science and the world around are woven into the narratives that we use to explain life.The films we watch reflect our hopes and fears and as the fears increase so do films with a shared theme of alternative realities. To know reality and search for the true Self is the job of the hero and the protagonist in recent alternative reality films.