Alien Woman The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley

by Smith, Jason; Gallardo-C., Ximena

• ISBN13: 9780826415707
• ISBN10: 0826415709
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-21
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Alien Woman examines the construction of sex and gender in the four science-fiction films comprising the Alien saga (starring Sigourney Weaver). The Alien saga stands alone in presenting an enduring, self-reliant female protagonist, Ripley, who in the first film ends up as the sole survivor of the beleaguered starship Nostromo. Subsequent writers and directors in the 1980s and 1990s, left to grapple with this strong female protagonist, reenvision Ripley to for different social, political, and cultural imperatives for women. Alien Woman focuses on how these writers and directors have re-written Ripley and how each revision informs our understanding of women in science fiction. And by examining the films' creation and commodification of the female hero, the books illustrates how changing attitudes toward women and the female body help us understand broader societal beliefs and relationships, and provides a useful lens with which to understand woman's place in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Alien Woman will appeal to researchers and teachers in film, mass communication, women's studies, gender studies and genre studies (particularly in science fiction and horror).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Foreword	ix
Introduction: Can't Live with Them, Can't Kill Them	1	(12)
Men, Women, and an Alien Baby	13	(49)
Ripley Gets Her Gun: Aliens and the Reagan Era Hero	62	(53)
``The Bitch Is Back'': The Iconoclastic Body in Alien3	115	(42)
``Who Are You?'': Alien Resurrection and the Posthuman Subject	157	(41)
Afterword: Alien Woman	198	(7)
Selected Bibliography	205	(16)
Notes	221	(14)
Index	235