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Genre, Special Effects and Authorship in the Critical Reception of Science Fiction Film and Television during the 1950s

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It Came From the 1950s!

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Abstract

Accounts of science fiction in film and television in the 1950s often present it as dominated by the alien invasion narratives, in which monsters from outer space seek to subjugate or exterminate humanity. Furthermore, these alien invasion narratives are commonly presented as rather simplistic products of Cold War tensions in which the alien is merely a thin disguise for soviet aggression. As Andrew Tudor puts it:

In the fifties … our way of life is threatened by alien forces which adversely affect the world around us. In this xenophobic universe we can do nothing but rely on the state, in the form of military, scientific and governmental elites … In this respect, then, fifties SF/horror movies teach us not so much ‘to stop worrying and love the bomb’ as ‘to keep worrying and love the state’, an admonition which accords perfectly with the nuclear-conscious Cold War culture of the period.1

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Mark Jancovich
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  2. Derek Johnston
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

    Darryl Jones (Head of the School of English and Fellow), Elizabeth McCarthy (Teaches in the School of English) & Bernice M. Murphy (Lecturer in Popular Literature at the School of English) (Head of the School of English and Fellow),  (Teaches in the School of English) &  (Lecturer in Popular Literature at the School of English)

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© 2011 Mark Jancovich and Derek Johnston

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Jancovich, M., Johnston, D. (2011). Genre, Special Effects and Authorship in the Critical Reception of Science Fiction Film and Television during the 1950s. In: Jones, D., McCarthy, E., Murphy, B.M. (eds) It Came From the 1950s!. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230337237_6

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