Screening Science : Contexts, Texts, and Science in Fifties Science Fiction Film

This title treats the polysemy of science fiction film. It examines the science fiction genre and analyzes the nature of science and its representation in western culture, especially in the 50s when the film medium assumes significance for the genre.

Screening Science removes the science fiction genre from considerations of monsters and aliens, to an examination of humans and their relationship with science, technology and change. The book is structured in two parts. The first examines the genre of science fiction, the contextual elements of history and culture, and the film industry. The second analyses the nature of science and its representation in western culture, narrowing to an attempt to detail the cultural representation of science in science fiction films, especially in the fifties when the film medium assumes significance for the genre. Vieth examines the growth in the influence and power of the scientific paradigm in the fifties through an examination of film in which such science was discussed, distorted, debated, denigrated, demonized and deified. This exploration reveals a great deal about the concerns of the time, as well as the science that figures so powerfully in the web of culture of the fifties.