Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy of the 1960s and 70s

The Post-Holocaust Authors

Valerie Estelle Frankel author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:30th Aug '24

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy of the 1960s and 70s cover

Following the Holocaust, American literature experienced a resurgence of Jewish themes, characters, and contributions. This book focuses on the genres of science fiction and fantasy of the post-Holocaust period and argues that while the era was colored by grief, it also offered a renaissance of Jewish creative expression. The author provides an overview of texts beginning with the rise of Jewish speculative fiction anthologies in science fiction and fantasy and delving into emerging subgenres such as alternate history, post-apocalyptic, cold war, second-wave feminism, counterculture parodies, new wave, postmodernism, and cyberpunk to illustrate how Jewish culture made its mark on popular culture. The book also covers the Silver Age and Bronze Age of comics which saw Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Julius Schwartz, and Marv Wolfman form new superhero teams to battle prejudice and draws parallels with some of the most impactful shows made by Jewish creators, including Star Trek, Twilight Zone, and Doctor Who. The analysis also looks beyond the American context to include texts from Germany, the Soviet Union, Brazil, and Israel.

The ulti­mate strength in this text is that it serves as a com­pan­ion to mul­ti­ple pieces of sci­ence fic­tion and fan­ta­sy, while also focus­ing on a dis­tinc­tive­ly post-Holo­caust the­mat­ic that arrives most clear­ly in the seg­ment dis­cussing post-apoc­a­lyp­tic works. The author’s obser­va­tions are well sup­port­ed by evi­dence cit­ed direct­ly from the source mate­r­i­al. This strat­e­gy and pre­sen­ta­tion keeps both the analy­sis ground­ed. * Jewish Book Council *
In Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy of the 1960s and 70s: The Post-Holocaust Authors, Valerie Estelle Frankel provides a fascinating ride through some of the key texts of the era and the Jews, Jewishness and Judaism in them. Highly recommended. -- Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor University, Wales and author of The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema
Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy of the 1960s and 70s is another excellent book from the wonderfully prolific author and scholar Valerie Estelle Frankel. Covering the vast ground of Jewishness and the Holocaust in speculative fiction and cinema of the crucial two decades in the US, Israel, and South America, the volume is a rich source on everything from Star Trek to Kubrick to Clarice Lispector. Both the newcomers and aficionados of the genre will find here much to learn and debate. Highly recommended. -- Marat Grinberg, Reed College

ISBN: 9781666941845

Dimensions: 237mm x 160mm x 25mm

Weight: 581g

268 pages