Star Trek and Star Wars

The Enlightenment versus the Anti-Enlightenment
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4331-9770-3
Verlag: Peter Lang

Buch, Englisch, 132 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 344 g

Reihe: Peter Lang Prompt

In Star Trek and Star Wars: The Enlightenment versus the Anti-Enlightenment, George A. Gonzalez shows that these two behemoths of popular culture put the Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment before the viewing public. Star Trek is arguably the popular culture vehicle most reflective of the Enlightenment: a belief in political and social progress, leading to a society that is modern, classless, and totally free of gender and ethnic biases. The Star Wars franchise, meanwhile, is seemingly the artistic embodiment of the anti-Enlightenment: societal progress (to the extent that it occurs) is solely a function of technology and not a perfecting of justice and fairness. Gonzalez shows that this reflects the pessimism and demoralization underlying the Trump phenomenon and the rise of anti-democratic, virulent nationalism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gonzalez, George

Über Autor(innen)

George A. Gonzalez (Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1997) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami. He is the author of Star Trek and Popular Culture: Television at the Frontier of Social and Political Change in the 1960s (also published by Peter Lang).