Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 653 g
The Atomic Bomb and Cold War Narratives
Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 653 g
ISBN: 978-1-60635-146-8
Verlag: Kent State University Press
In Pat Frank’s 1959 novel <em>Alas, Babylon</em>, the character Helen says of her children: “All their lives, ever since they’ve known anything, they’ve lived under the shadow of war—atomic war. For them the abnormal has become normal.” The threat of nuclear annihilation was a constant source of dread during the Cold War, and in <em>Under the Shadow</em>, author David Seed examines how authors and filmmakers made repeated efforts in their work to imagine the unimaginable.<br><br>Seed discusses classics of the period like Nevil Shute’s <em>On the Beach, </em>but he also argues for recognition of less-known works such as Walter M. Miller’s depiction of historical cycles in <em>A Canticle for Leibowitz</em>, Bernard Wolfe’s black comedy of aggression in <em>Limbo</em>, or Mordecai Roshwald’s satirical depiction of technology running out of human control in <em>Level 7</em>. Seed relates these literary works to their historical contexts and to their adaptations in film. Two prime examples of this interaction between media are the motion pictures <em>Fail-Safe</em>and <em>Dr. Strangelove</em>, which dramatise the threat posed by the arms race to rationality and ultimate human survival.<br><br>Seed addresses the attempts made by characters to remap America as a central part of their efforts to understand the horrors of the war. A particular subset of future histories is also examined: accounts of a Third World War, which draw on the conventions of military history and reportage to depict probable war scenarios. <em>Under the Shadow</em> concludes with a discussion of the recent fiction of nuclear terrorism.
