Call for Chapters: The Influence of 1950s Science Fiction
REVENGE OF THE REMAKES:
ADAPTATION AND INFLUENCE OF 195OS SCI FI FILMS
Revenge of the Remakes: Adaptations and the Influence of 1950s Sci-Fi Films is a proposed edited collection that will focus on the influence of 1950s science fiction films in later decades through direct and indirect adaptations. A great deal has been written about the sci-fi films of the 1950s, but much less has been written about how these films have been recycled, repurposed, and reused over the years. Science fiction has thoroughly saturated our own era. Hollywood, alone, produces over four hundred science fiction films annually, and many of these owe a great deal to films from the 50s. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between 50s sci-fi films and the explosion of sci-fi texts that have been made since, with the intent of unveiling their continued influence on the various themes and concerns of subsequent science fiction.
Certainly SF films were created earlier, but the decade of the 1950s is the first heyday of science fiction film. Many of these films, like Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), strongly reflect concerns of the moment, but tropes from Siegel’s film have found surprising new life in shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things. One of the most revered sci fi films of the 1950s, MGM’s Forbidden Planet (1956), became the blueprint for Star Trek, its movie franchise, and its growing list of television spinoffs. As these films have been adapted, recycled, and remade many, like 2009’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, re-focus central themes. In this case from 1950s fears of nuclear proliferation, to millennial fears of environmental collapse. Other remakes, such as John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), preserve similar themes, but take advantage of improved special effects technology to more accurately adapt the original ideas. In John Campbell’s novella, Who Goes There?, the alien creature has the ability to change shapes to mimic any living creature, including the scientists at the isolated Antarctic research station. Howard Hawks may have been drawn to that central conceit when he made The Thing from Another World in 1951, but the technology to convincingly put that shape-changing ability on the big screen would have to wait 30 years for Carpenter and his team. 1979’s Alien, arguably another adaptation of The Thing, introduced an interesting variation on the themes of Hawk’s film. In the 1979 film, and its sequel, Aliens (1986),feminist elements are added as Ellen Ripley, a strong and very capable woman, is the sole survivor of the first film. In the second film Ripley faces off against a female alien intent on protecting her offspring.
As we envision it, the book will consist of the tentative general headings below, though we hope that potential contributors will recommend other (and better) topics:
Human and Alien Interaction
Body Snatching Then and Now
War (and Peace) Between Worlds
Its, Things, and Blobs—the Monstrous and Not So Monstrous Other
The Space Race
Recasting Race in Sci-Fi Remakes
The Roles of 1950s Sci-Fi in Racial Relations
It’s a Small World After All: Cultural Reappropriations of Science Fiction
The Influence of Hollywood’s 1950s Sci-Fi on World Cinema
Hollywood Remakes of Foreign Sci-Fi
Gendered Perspectives
Changing Gender Roles in Sci-Fi
Gender as Other: She Demons, Planetary Gender, and Gender Transgression
Lost Worlds and Giant Monsters
Lost Continents
Mysterious Islands
The Center of the Planet
Undersea Kingdoms
Forbidden Planets
Ends of the World
Holocausts, Nuclear and Otherwise
Human Influence on a Planetary Scale
Deserted Cities
Last People on Earth
Here’s the timeline for the project:
• Sep 30 Formal proposals due
• Feb 17, 2020 Drafts of completed chapters due
• May 11, 2020 Final drafts of chapters due
The formal proposals should be about 300 words and should include the 1950s film text or texts with which you plan to work, the later or “influenced” text(s) you hope to include, and a brief description of your approach. They should be submitted by September 30, 2019 to one of the email addresses listed below.
The complete chapters should be a concise 5200-6500 words, or about 17-20 double-spaced pages. We hope this will be a richly illustrated volume with at least an image or two for each chapter. This will, however, depend somewhat on the publisher.
If you have questions let us know, otherwise we hope to hear from prospective contributors by the end of September.
If you are interested in contributing to this collection please address inquiries and chapter proposals to:
Dennis R. Perry or Dennis R. Cutchins
4171 JFSB 4167 JFSB
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602 Provo, UT 84604
801-422-1717 801-422-9042
dennis_perry@byu.edu dennis_cutchins@byu.edu
Dennis Perry and Dennis Cutchins are the authors and/or editors of multiple books on the film adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe, the films of Alfred Hitchcock, adaptations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and multiple volumes focused on adaptation studies.