American Science Fiction and the Cold War

by Seed, David

• ISBN13: 9781579581954
• ISBN10: 1579581951
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

American Science Fiction--in both literature and film--has played a key role in the portrayal of the fears inherent in the Cold War. The end of this era heralds the need for a reassessment of the literary output of the forty-year period since 1945. Working through a series of key texts,American Science Fiction and the Cold Warinvestigates the political inflections put on American narratives in the post-war decades by Cold War cultural circumstances. Nuclear holocaust, Russian invasion, and the perceived rise of totalitarianism in American society are key elements in the author's exploration of science fiction narratives that includeFahrenheit 451,Invasion of the Body Snatchers, andDr. Strangelove.

Author Biography

David Seed is Reader in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool, England

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vi
Introduction	1	(13)
I Postwar Jeremiads: Philip Wylie and Leo Szilard	14	(14)
II Variations on a Patriotic Theme: Robert A. Heinlein	28	(12)
III History and Apocalypse in Poul Anderson	40	(13)
IV Views from the Hearth	53	(15)
V Cultures of Surveillance	68	(14)
VI Take-Over Bids; Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth	82	(12)
VII The Russians Have Come	94	(13)
VIII Embodying the Arms Race: Bernard Wolfe's Limbo	107	(12)
IX The Cold War Computerised	119	(13)
X Conspiracy Narratives	132	(13)
XI Absurdist Visions: Dr. Strangelove in Context	145	(12)
XII The Signs of War: Walter M. Miller and Russell Hoban	157	(11)
XIII In the Aftermath	168	(13)
XIV The Star Wars Debate	181	(13)
Bibliography	194	(18)
Index	212