Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams
Subtitle: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime
Contributors: Christopher Bolton (Editor); Jr., Istvan Csicsery-Ronay (Editor); Takayuki Tatsumi (Editor)
Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press; University of Minnesota Press
Published: November 26, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780816649730
Subjects: Animation; Novels, other prose & writers; Social Science; Ethnic Issues; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Japanese; Sociology; Japan; Asian - Japanese; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Social Science / Ethnic Studies; Ethnic Studies - General; History and criticism; Science fiction, Japanese
Description: "Since the end of the Second World War--and particularly over the past decade--Japanese science fiction has strongly influenced global popular culture. Unlike American and British science fiction, its most popular examples have been visual--from Gojira (Godzilla) and Astro Boy in the 1950s and 1960s to the anime masterpieces Akira and Ghost in the Shell of the 1980s and 1990s--while little attention has been paid to a vibrant tradition of prose science fiction in Japan. Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams remedies this neglect with a rich exploration of the genre that connects prose science fiction to contemporary anime. Bringing together Western scholars and leading Japanese critics, this groundbreaking work traces the beginnings, evolution, and future direction of science fiction in Japan, its major schools and authors, cultural origins and relationship to its Western counterparts, the role of the genre in the formation of Japan's national and political identity, and its unique fan culture. Covering a remarkable range of texts--from the 1930s fantastic detective fiction of Yumeno Kyūsaku to the cross-culturally produced and marketed film and video game franchise Final Fantasy--this book firmly establishes Japanese science fiction as a vital and exciting genre." -- Publisher's description.