scholarly journals The voice and the void: the scream in 1950s American science fiction film

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Hergott
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
American Science ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
American Society

In the United States, science fiction film rose to prominence as a critically recognized genre in the 1950s, a decade fraught with cultural complications and contradictions and also inspired by optimism and upward trajectory. Warren Susman characterizes the period as one marked by a "dual consciousness," a time when "the fulfillment of our sweetest desires [led] inevitably to the brink of danger and damnation"; the fifties, he writes, was an age of anxiety as much as it was a time of abundance, freedom, and possibility (30). For historian David Halberstam, while a retrospective examination of the decade suggests to some a "slower, almost languid" pace, social ferment "was beginning just beneath this placid surface" (ix). Throughout the decade, notions of national security played out in conflicting ways that traversed both the public and private spheres. Science fiction, a genre that coincided with massive industry changes that saw the development of a sizable low-budget, teen-oriented independent sector, resonated deeply with such opposing and anxiety-laden articulations of both public and private security. While most previous discussions of the genre tend to focus on such concerns in their public dimension (particularly as related to political unease during the Cold War), what follows will address sci-fi' s depiction of anxieties in that other, more private realm of American society, particularly in relation to the expression of gender, sexuality, and desire. Cold War politics, the postwar consumer boom, re-entrenchment of family values and suburban home life, and industry upheavals in Hollywood are all important for understanding what is now thought of as the golden age of American science fiction film. These socio-political factors contextualize the genre's rise to prominence, its defining stylistic and thematic characteristics, and its treatment of gendered subjectivity. As we will see, while some science fiction films of the 1950s engaged or challenged cultural rhetoric related to expected norms of gendered behaviour, for the most part these films upheld the era's return to more traditional gender roles for men and women, an observation which has been taken up in the critical literature, particularly within feminist film scholarship. However, within this body of films exists a common and recurring convention that has been largely neglected by science fiction film scholars, one that warrants further study due to its implications for understanding the return to domesticity in the American postwar period. This filmic convention is the scream, a visual and aural articulation of fear expressed mostly by women (but also, and just as importantly, by men). Far from being a mere cheap gimmick employed by filmmakers alongside special effects and insatiable monsters, the scream provides valuable insight into the domestic ideologies that prevailed during the 1950s.

scholarly journals The voice and the void: the scream in 1950s American science fiction film

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Hergott
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
American Science ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
American Society

In the United States, science fiction film rose to prominence as a critically recognized genre in the 1950s, a decade fraught with cultural complications and contradictions and also inspired by optimism and upward trajectory. Warren Susman characterizes the period as one marked by a "dual consciousness," a time when "the fulfillment of our sweetest desires [led] inevitably to the brink of danger and damnation"; the fifties, he writes, was an age of anxiety as much as it was a time of abundance, freedom, and possibility (30). For historian David Halberstam, while a retrospective examination of the decade suggests to some a "slower, almost languid" pace, social ferment "was beginning just beneath this placid surface" (ix). Throughout the decade, notions of national security played out in conflicting ways that traversed both the public and private spheres. Science fiction, a genre that coincided with massive industry changes that saw the development of a sizable low-budget, teen-oriented independent sector, resonated deeply with such opposing and anxiety-laden articulations of both public and private security. While most previous discussions of the genre tend to focus on such concerns in their public dimension (particularly as related to political unease during the Cold War), what follows will address sci-fi' s depiction of anxieties in that other, more private realm of American society, particularly in relation to the expression of gender, sexuality, and desire. Cold War politics, the postwar consumer boom, re-entrenchment of family values and suburban home life, and industry upheavals in Hollywood are all important for understanding what is now thought of as the golden age of American science fiction film. These socio-political factors contextualize the genre's rise to prominence, its defining stylistic and thematic characteristics, and its treatment of gendered subjectivity. As we will see, while some science fiction films of the 1950s engaged or challenged cultural rhetoric related to expected norms of gendered behaviour, for the most part these films upheld the era's return to more traditional gender roles for men and women, an observation which has been taken up in the critical literature, particularly within feminist film scholarship. However, within this body of films exists a common and recurring convention that has been largely neglected by science fiction film scholars, one that warrants further study due to its implications for understanding the return to domesticity in the American postwar period. This filmic convention is the scream, a visual and aural articulation of fear expressed mostly by women (but also, and just as importantly, by men). Far from being a mere cheap gimmick employed by filmmakers alongside special effects and insatiable monsters, the scream provides valuable insight into the domestic ideologies that prevailed during the 1950s.

Science Fiction Film

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Luiz Suppia
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Latin American Film ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Film Genre ◽  
American Science ◽  
American Film Industry

Latin American science fiction (SF) cinema does exist, although it is seldom noted by most film critics, scholars, and historians—and perhaps even by major audiences. Unlike other countries across the globe, Latin American countries generally lack more visible and consistent SF film production. This circumstance can be ascribed to limited film budgets and the lack of a consistent film industry in Latin America, which, in turn leads to a type of production and aesthetics that relies on the audiences’ imagination more than special effects per se. The alleged “invisibility” of Latin American SF film can be partially (if not totally) explained by the historical instability affecting the Latin American film industry. Thus, cultural biases align with economic circumstances in the preclusion of Latin American SF cinema. Exceptions, however, may be found in the scenarios of Argentina and Mexico, countries where speculative fiction (including both the fantastic and SF) appear to have developed differently, in comparison with other Latin American nations, such as Brazil. In any case, a systematic and consistent body of film criticism and academic work dedicated to Latin American SF film has yet to be constructed. Unlike the literature on the United States, Europe, and Japan, the available bibliography on Latin American manifestations of this film genre is generally sporadic and scattered. Yet, this situation appears to be gradually changing. Internet and digital technologies have scaffolded a (still) fragile web for film scholars interested in SF cinema. And, interest in Latin American SF—literary and audiovisual—seems to be growing, on the part of international scholars. This article will provide a basic bibliography for further investigation into the field of Latin American SF cinema, with a special focus on three countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

Altar Call in Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uta A. Balbier
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Altar Call ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
International Ministry

This book provides a transnational history of Billy Graham’s revival work in the 1950s, zooming in on his revival meetings in London (1954), Berlin (1954/1960), and New York (1957). It shows how Graham’s international ministry took shape in the context of transatlantic debates about the place and future of religion in public life after the experiences of war and at the onset of the Cold War, and through a constant exchange of people, ideas, and practices. It explores the transnational nature of debates about the religious underpinnings of the “Free World” and sheds new light on the contested relationship between business, consumerism, and religion. In the context of Graham’s revival meetings, ordinary Christians, theologians, ministers, and church leaders in the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom discussed, experienced, and came to terms with religious modernization and secular anxieties, Cold War culture, and the rise of consumerism. The transnational connectedness of their political, economic, and spiritual hopes and fears brings a narrative to life that complicates our understanding of the different secularization paths the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany embarked on in the 1950s. During Graham’s altar call in Europe, the contours of a transatlantic revival become visible, even if in the long run it was unable to develop a dynamism that could have sustained this moment in these different national and religious contexts.

Israel's Moment

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Herf
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Cold War

Israel's Moment is a major new account of how a Jewish state came to be forged in the shadow of World War Two and the Holocaust and the onset of the Cold War. Drawing on new research in government, public and private archives, Jeffrey Herf exposes the political realities that underpinned support for and opposition to Zionist aspirations in Palestine. In an unprecedented international account, he explores the role of the United States, the Arab States, the Palestine Arabs, the Zionists, and key European governments from Britain and France to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland. His findings reveal a spectrum of support and opposition that stood in sharp contrast to the political coordinates that emerged during the Cold War, shedding new light on how and why the state of Israel was established in 1948 and challenging conventional associations of left and right, imperialism and anti-imperialism, and racism and anti-racism.

España Libre and Its Editors

2020 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Montse Feu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Diplomatic Recognition ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Franco Dictatorship

España Libre’s editors invigorated the periodical’s proletarian counterculture to both fascism and elitism and sustained an ongoing resistance through times of harsh repression in Spain and Cold War political tensions in the United States. In the 1940s editorials focused on alerting readers about the spread of fascism to the Americas and encouraged fundraising for refugees. By the 1950s, the increasing international diplomatic recognition of the Franco dictatorship disquieted members and the editorials published during that decade were heavily focused on denouncing that recognition. However, by the 1960s the periodical concentrated its efforts on supporting the weakened underground labor opposition in Spain and in coordinating efforts with other political forces. In the 1970s, España Libre published homages to exiles for the antifascist resistance they put forth.

Assimilation and Respectability in the 1950s

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Alexander Kitroeff
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
Postwar America ◽  
Religious Identification ◽  
Greek Orthodox Church ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the Greek Orthodox Church against the background of the 1950s. It highlights the rise in religiosity and the upward social mobility of the Greek American second generation. It also explains how the Greek Orthodox church, which was on the margins of conversations about religion in America, found ways to become more relevant and somewhat mainstream. The chapter analyzes the unexpected development and importance of the Eastern Orthodox Churches to the Cold War policies of the United States. It also looks into the combination of powerful causes, such as the Cold War, social dislocation in suburbia, anxieties of the atomic age, and deliberate religious marketing that led to a remarkable spread of religious identification in postwar America.

Race and Reconciliation at Mid-Century

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan W. Austin
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Race Relations ◽  
The South ◽  
Intercultural Exchange ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
American Friends Service Committee

This concluding chapter covers the work of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in the 1950s onward. Even as AFSC officials linked their efforts to the Quaker past and trusted Friendly methods, its staff understood that their approach to race relations had evolved since the Service Committee's earliest forays into the field. Furthermore, AFSC leaders understood the need for additional innovation in the early 1950s, especially as the Cold War intensified. The chapter traces the AFSC's activities during this period, including their attempts at expansion—particularly in the South—via the Washington Project. The Washington Project exhibited an expanding range of interracial techniques that had been evolving since the 1920s, especially an emphasis on education and intercultural exchange and a broader critique of and approach to racial problems in American society. Though the Washington Project would conclude in late 1955, the chapter shows how the AFSC continued their interracial activism still further South.

The Reception of American Science Fiction in Japan

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadashi Nagasawa
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
American Science ◽  
Japanese Science ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S

American science fiction has been a significant source of ideas and imagination for Japanese creators: they have been producing extensive works of not only written texts but also numerous films, television shows, Japanese comics and cartoons (Manga and Animé), music, and other forms of art and entertainment under its influence. Tracing the history of the import of American science fiction works shows how Japan accepted, consumed, and altered them to create their own mode of science fiction, which now constitutes the core of so-called “Cool-Japan” content. Popular American science fiction emerged from pulp magazines and paperbacks in the early 20th century. In the 1940s, John W. Campbell Jr. and his magazine Astounding Science Fiction had great impact on the genre, propelling its “Golden Age.” In the 1960s, however, American science fiction seemed dated, but the “New Wave” arose in the United Kingdom, which soon affected American writers. With the cyberpunk movement in the 1980s, science fiction became part of postmodernist culture. Japanese science fiction has developed under the influence of American science fiction, especially after WWII. Paperbacks and magazines discarded by American soldiers were handed down to Japanese readers. Many would later become science fiction writers, translators, or editors. Japanese science fiction has mainly followed the line of Golden Age science fiction, which speculates on how science and technology affect the social and human conditions, whereas the New Wave and cyberpunk movements contributed to Japanese postmodernism. Japanese Manga, Animé, and special effects (SFX) television shows and films (Tokusatsu) are also closely related to science fiction and have developed under its influence. Even as works of the Japanese popular culture owe much to American science fiction, they have become popular worldwide.

A Bright New Future, With Monsters

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Hantke
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
World War ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Cold War

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's key themes. This book focuses on American science fiction films of the 1950s, many of which are fondly remembered, yet critically dismissed. It argues that it is through the intersection of past and present, of unresolved trauma superimposed upon present anxieties, that 1950s science fiction films acquire topical relevance within their historical context. Science fiction films from the 1950s are a belated response to the national trauma of World War II and the Korean War projected onto the unsettling experience of the Cold War. With much of the critical work on the Cold War aspects of the films already delivered by other scholars, this book will weigh in on the side of the argument that has, as yet, remained critically neglected—the side of past trauma: on World War II and the Korean War, and their troubling legacy in the first decade of the American Century.

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