Cultural Framing of Risk and Religion within Science Fiction Narratives
Issue: Vol 27 No. 1 (2014)
Journal: Journal for the Academic Study of Religion
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies
Abstract:
This article explores some case studies of science fiction narratives concerning human-made worldwide catastrophes (i.e. The Day the Earth Stood Still, I Am Legend, Dawn of the Dead) that have been made and re-made since World War II. It analyses how the notion of risk has changed over this period of time, the degree of human responsibility for these post-World War II catastrophes and how religion, which has not been their root cause, is now being offered as a subtle ‘way out’. The article discovers key differences between narratives on risk in popular culture from the modern and late modern periods.
Author: Adam Possamai, Alphia Possamai-Inesedy
References :
Beck, U. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Newbury Park, Sage Publications, 1992
Beck, U. "From Industrial to Risk Society." Theory, Culture & Society 9(1): 97-123, 1992b.
Beck, U. “Politics of Risk Society.” In The Politics of Risk Society. S. Franklin (ed.). Cambridge, Polity Press: 9-22, 1998.
Beck, U. A God of One’s Own. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010.
Beck, U., A. Giddens, and S. Lash. Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition, and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 1994.
Bendle, M. “The Apocalyptic Imagination and Popular Culture.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 11, 2005. 3 Apr. 2011
Bradley, M. Richard Matheson on Screen, A History of the Filmed Works. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, 2010.
Carroll, N. The Philosophy of Horror. New York and London: Routledge, 1990.
Cowan, D. “Seeing the Saviour in the Stars: Religion, Conformity, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Journal of Popular Culture and Religion 21 (1), 2009.
Cowan, D. Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010.
Curran, J. “The New Revisionism in Mass Communication Research : A Reappraisal.” European Journal of Communication 5: 135-164, 1990.
Di Manno, Y. “Lucides anticipations.” Manière de voir. Le Monde Diplomatique 111: 64–67, June-July 2010.
Disch, T. The Dreams our Stuff is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World. New York: The Free Press, 1998.
Etherden, M. “The Day the Earth Stood Still: 1950s Sci-Fi, Religion and the Alien Messiah.” The Journal of Religion and Film 9.2, 2005.
Flyvbjerg, B. Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Foucault, M. Les Mots et les Choses. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1966.
Giddens, A. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991.
Giddens, A. Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping our Lives. London, Profile Books, 1999.
Gregg, P. “England Looks to the Future: The Cultural Forum Model and Doctor Who.” Journal of Popular Culture 37.4: 648–661, 2004.
Kuhn, T. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Laycock, J. “Conversion by Infection: The Sociophobic of Cults in the Omega Man.” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 1.2: 103–120, 2010.
Paik, P. From Utopia to Apocalypse: Science Fiction and the Politics of Catastrophe. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
Renard, J.B. “Religion, Science-Fiction et Extraterrestres.” Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 50.1: 143–164, 1980.
Repphun, E. “‘You Can’t Hide from the Things that You’ve Done Anymore’: ‘Battlestar Galactica’and the Clash of Civilisations Debate”. Westminster Papers in Communication in Culture 8.2. Oct. 2011.
Rey, T. Bourdieu on Religion. Imposing Faith and Legitimacy. London : Equinox, 2007.
Sterling, B. “Science Fiction.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. 13 June 2008
Tulloch, J. and H. Jenkins. Science Fiction Audiences. Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek. London: Routledge, 1995.
Waller, G. The Living and the Undead. Slaying Vampires, Exterminating Zombies. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
Williams, S. J. and M. Calnan. "The 'Limits' of Medicalization?: Modern Medicine and the Lay Populace in 'Late' Modernity." Social Science & Medicine 42.12: 1609-1620, 1996.
Woodman, T. “Science fiction religion and transcendence.” In Parrinder, P., ed. Science Fiction: A Critical Guide. New York: Longman, 110–130, 1979.