H. G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies

by Williams, Keith

• ISBN13: 9781846310607
• ISBN10: 1846310601
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-15
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

This book investigates Wells's interest in cinema and related media technologies, by placing it back into the contemporary cultural and scientific contexts giving rise to them. It plugs a gap in understanding Wells's contribution to exploring and advancing the possibilities of cinematic narrative and its social and ideological impacts in the modern period. Previous studies concentrate on adaptations: this book accounts for the specifically (proto)cinematic techniques and concerns of Wells's texts. It also focuses on contemporary film-making ‘in dialogue' with his ideas. Alongside Hollywood's later transactions, it gives equal weight to neglected British and continental European dimensions. Chapter 1 shows how early writings (The Time Machine and short stories) feature many kinds of radically defamiliarised vision. These constitute imaginative speculations about the forms and potentials of moving image and electronic media. Chapter 2 discusses the power of voyeurism, ‘absent presence' and the disjunction of sound-image reproduction implied in The Invisible Man and its topical politics, updated in notable screen versions. Chapter 3 extends this to dystopian warnings of systematic surveillance, broadcasting of celebrity personae and ‘post-literate' video culture in When the Sleeper Wakes, a crucial template for urban futures on film. Chapter 4 analyses Wells's belated return to screenwriting in the 1930s. It accounts for his ‘broadbrow' ambition of mediating between popular and avant-garde tendencies to promote his cause and its mixed results in Things to Come, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, etc. Chapter 5 finally surveys Wells's legacy on both small and large screens. It considers whether, as well as being raided for scenarios for spectacular effects, his subtexts still nourish an evolving tradition of alternative SF, which duly critiques the innovations and applications of its host media.

Author Biography

Keith Williams is senior lecturer in English literature at Dundee University and a recent consultant to BBC 4’s trilogy of programs on the history of British science fiction, The Martians and Us.

Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

General Introduction

Church Councils and Church Government

The Christological Crisis: The Two Councils of Ephesu

The Council of Chalcedon

Chalcedon's Legacy

The Theology of Chalcedon

Composition and Transmission of the Acts

Documents Before The Council

8 October 451

Debate over Ephesus II

Home Synod of 448

Numbering of the Sessions

Abbreviations

10 October Debate over the faith

13 October Trial of Dioscorus

17 October Tome of Leo, Egyptian Bishops and Constantinopolitan Monks

Session On Carosus And Dorotheus, 20 October

Session On Photius And Eustathius, 20 October

22 October The Definition of the Faith

25 October Promulgation of the Definition

26 October Patriarchate of Jerusalem

26 October Theodoret of Cyrrhus

26 October Ibas of Edessa (1)

27 October Ibas of Edessa (2)

Numbering of the Sessions

Abbreviations

29 October Bassianus and Stephen of Ephesus (1)

30 October Bassianus and Stephen of Ephesus (2)

30 October Nicomedia and Nicaea

31 October Athanasius and Sabinianus of Perrhe

31 October Leo, Letter 93

1 November Canon 28

Canons 1-27

Documents After The Council

Appendices

The Documentary Collections

Attendance and Ecumenicity

Glossary

Bibliography

Maps

Dioceses and Provinces

The Balkans

Western Asia Minor

Eastern Asia Minor

Syria, Palestine, and Cyprusn

Egypt

Indices

Personal names

Bishop, Clerics and Monks

Secular Dignitaries

Sees by province

Documents

Conciliar Acts and Decrees

Conciliar Canons

Florilegia

Documents from individuals

Topics

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