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Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg
Edited by Adrian Schober and Debbie Olson
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Book Presentation:
To say that children matter in Steven Spielberg's films is an understatement. Think of the possessed Stevie in Something Evil (TV), Baby Langston in The Sugarland Express, the alien-abducted Barry in Close Encounters,Elliott and his unearthly alter-ego in E.T, the war-damaged Jim in Empire of the Sun, the little girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List, the mecha child in A.I., the kidnapped boy in Minority Report, and the eponymous boy hero of The Adventures of Tintin. (There are many other instances across his oeuvre). Contradicting his reputation as a purveyor of ‘popcorn’ entertainment, Spielberg’s vision of children/childhood is complex. Discerning critics have begun to note its darker underpinnings, increasingly fraught with tensions, conflicts and anxieties. But, while childhood is Spielberg’s principal source of inspiration, the topic has never been the focus of a dedicated collection of essays. The essays in Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg therefore seek to address childhood in the full spectrum of Spielberg’s cinema. Fittingly, the scholars represented here draw on a range of theoretical frameworks and disciplines―cinema studies, literary studies, audience reception, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, sociology, and more. This is an important book for not only scholars but teachers and students of Spielberg's work, and for any serious fan of the director and his career.
About the authors:
Adrian Schober serves on the editorial board of Red Feather: An International Journal of Children in Popular Culture.Debbie Olson is lecturer at the University of Texas at Arlington, and for Dallas County Community College District.
Press Reviews:
Schober and Olson's collection comprises 11 essays exploring how Spielberg develops the child characters in some of his motion pictures [...] Treated are the complex mother-child relationship in Something Evil; the trauma of child abduction in Close Encounters of the Third Kind; images of dirt and filth in The Color Purple (an aspect of the film that left Spielberg vulnerable to charges of racism); youth, masculinity and agency in Tintin; and abandonment and subsequent manic-depressive behaviour of boy protagonists in three films, Empire of the Sun, A.I., and Catch Me if You Can [...] This book could serve as a model for other collections of film essays. (CHOICE)
See the publisher website: Lexington Books
See the complete filmography of Steven Spielberg on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same authors:
Screening Children in Post-apocalypse Film and Television (2023)
Dir. Debbie Olson
Subject: Genre > Disaster films
Black Children in Hollywood Cinema (2017)
Cast in Shadow
by Debbie Olson
Subject: Countries > United States
> On a related topic:
Steven Spielberg (2024)
The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work
by Ian Nathan
Subject: Director > Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg All the Films (2023)
The Story Behind Every Movie, Episode, and Short
by Arnaud Devillard, Olivier Bousquet and Nicolas Schaller
Subject: Director > Steven Spielberg
A Critical Companion to Steven Spielberg (2022)
Dir. Adam Barkman and Antonio Sanna
Subject: Director > Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg (2019)
Interviews
Dir. Brent Notbohm and Lester D. Friedman
Subject: Director > Steven Spielberg
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