Steampunk Film

A Critical Introduction

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by Robbie McAllister

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Science Fiction

Keywords

steampunk, 21st century, science fiction

Publishing date

2020

Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic

1st publishing

2019

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 264 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-1-5013-6860-8

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Book Presentation:
Steampunk Film: A Critical Introduction is a concise and accessible overview of steampunk's indelible impact within film, and acts as a case study for examining the ways with which genres hybridize and coalesce into new forms. Since the beginning of the 21st century, a series of high-profile and big-budget films have adopted steampunk identities to re-imagine periods of industrial development into fantastical histories where future meets past. By calling this growing mass-cultural fetishism for anachronistic machines into question, this book examines how a retro-futuristic romanticism for technology powered by cogs, pistons and steam-engines has taken center stage in blockbuster cinema.

As the first monograph to consider cinema's unique relationship with steampunk, it places this burgeoning genre in the context of ongoing debates within film theory: each of which reflecting the movement's remarkable interest in reengineering historical technologies. Rather than acting as a niche subculture, Robbie McAllister argues that steampunk's proliferation in mainstream filmmaking reflects a desire to reassess contemporary relationships with technology and navigate the intense changes that the medium itself is experiencing in the 21st century.

About the Author:
Following a masters that evaluated the genre of gothic horror, Robbie McAllister's doctoral thesis considered the significance of a growing number of steampunk films that recast the nineteenth century into a realm where past, present and future collide. This research has developed into both an upcoming monograph and a continued interest in investigating steampunk's pop-cultural representations of antiquated technologies. He is currently a lecturer in film at Leeds Trinity University, UK, where he leads courses focused upon the film industry and contemporary media change.

Press Reviews:
"While academics have engaged with steampunk as a subject, none has explored film in the depth that this book does. Film is used here to elucidate what steampunk is and what its attitude to technology and design can tell us about contemporary cultural attitudes to technology and society." ―Jeanette Atkinson, Research Development Advisor, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic