David Seed, American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999, £16.95). Pp. 216. ISBN 1 85331 227 4.

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-198
Author(s):  
DANIEL JUPP
Author(s):  
Moeed Yusuf

This chapter surveys the literature on nuclear crises. It begins by summarizing the Cold War treatment of these episodes, highlighting the centrality of bilateral deterrence and models such as “brinkmanship” in creating expectations for nuclear crisis behavior. Even though third-party actors remained important as superpower allies during the Cold War, literature during this period suffered from a two-actor bias flowing from the global hegemony of the superpowers. Post–Cold War literature tends to account for regional nuclearization and unipolarity but in summarizing this body of work, the chapter identifies that there is still insufficient knowledge of the various factors at play in regional nuclear crises.


1970 ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
Grażyna Gajewska

Gajewska Grażyna, Cyborgi – literacko-filmowe figury dyskursu interaktywnego [Cyborgs – Literary and Film Figures of Interactive Discourse]. „Przestrzenie Teorii” 32. Poznań 2019, Adam Mickiewicz University Press, pp. 179–196. ISSN 1644-6763. DOI 10.14746/pt.2019.32.9. The author analyzes the figure of the cyborg in science fiction literature and film. The text begins by showing this kind of literary work in the theoretical field and presents it as an interactive discourse. The author describes the scientific roots of constructing a human-technical hybrid, emphasizing the ideological and political context of this research. In this approach, the cyborg appears as a participant in and also a hostage of the Cold War. Next, the author finds literary and film creations of cyborgs inspired by this political and military heritage. The article also presents alternative images of cyborgs co-creating a feminist and postcolonial discourse. They were also included in specific policies and strategies aimed at deconstructing concepts such as sex and gender, sexuality, race, nation, social class. The main thesis of the article is that as fictitious and real entities, cyborgs are prone to ideologization and burdened with the obligation to politicize. Therefore, when studying cyborgs in literature, film and comics, we must ask what ideologies and politicians they serve.


2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
GERRY CANAVAN

This article examines science-fictional allegorizations of Soviet-style planned economies, financial markets, autonomous trading algorithms, and global capitalism writ large as nonhuman artificial intelligences, focussing primarily on American science fiction of the Cold War period. Key fictional texts discussed include Star Trek, Isaac Asimov's Machine stories, Terminator, Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952), Charles Stross's Accelerando (2005), and the short stories of Philip K. Dick. The final section of the article discusses Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 (2012) within the contemporary political context of accelerationist anticapitalism, whose advocates propose working with “the machines” rather than against them.


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