Alien Woman
Subtitle: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
Edition: New Ed edition
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
Published: September 2006
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 241
ISBN-13: 9780826419101
Subjects: Film theory & criticism; Science fiction; Women's studies; Women's Studies - General; Popular Culture - General; Social Science; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Sociology; Film & Video - History & Criticism
Description: "Alien Woman examines the construction of sex and gender in the four science-fiction films comprising the Alien saga (starring Sigourney Weaver). The Alien saga stands alone in presenting an enduring, self-reliant female protagonist, Ripley, who in the first film ends up as the sole survivor of the beleaguered starship Nostromo. Subsequent writers and directors in the 1980s and 1990s, left to grapple with this strong female protagonist, reenvision Ripley for different social, political, and cultural imperatives for women. Alien Woman focuses on how these writers and directors have re-written Ripley and how each revision informs our understanding of women in science fiction. And by examining the films' creation and commodification of the female hero, the books illustrates how changing attitudes toward women and the female body help us understand broader societal beliefs and relationships, and provides a useful lens with which to understand woman's place in the late 20th century and early 21st century."--