Critical Companion to James Cameron

Adam Barkman is professor of philosophy and chair of the Philosophy Department at Redeemer University College.Antonio Sanna teaches English language and literature at the Instituto Pitagora.

• Chapter One: We Must Not Forget about the Flying Fish: Piranha II’s Influence on Cameron’s Subsequent Works Ian Thomas Malone and Antonio Sanna Chapter Two: Reframing Tragedy: Titanic, Affect and the Arresting ImageFran Pheasant-Kelly Chapter Three: Exploration, Education and Humanity: James Cameron’s Deep-Sea DocumentariesAlissa Burger Chapter Four: Avatar, SF Mannerism and the AnthropoceneMaurizia NataliChapter Five: She’s the ‘King of the World!’ Modernizing Melodrama in TitanicCarol DonelanChapter Six: Losing Touch or Making More Contact? Cameron’s Use of Technology and Visual EffectsPaul Johnson Chapter Seven: The Exodus Decoded, The Lost Tomb of Jesus and the Problem of History for FaithJonathan Fischer and Adam BarkmanChapter Eight: No Fate: James Cameron, Jesus, and John ConnorRacheal Harris Chapter Nine: The Simulated Sublime: Exploring Hollywood Ecocriticism in AvatarSiobhan LyonsChapter Ten: The Backlash and Empowerment of Feminism in Xenogenesis, Piranha II: The Spawning, and AliensFernando Gabriel Pagnoni BernsChapter Eleven: Taking Gettier to Tasker: True Lies, Knowledge, and the Prospects of Virtue EpistemologyMichael Versteeg and Adam BarkmanChapter Twelve: “I Wanted to Do Something Outrageous”: On the Limits of Parody in True LiesRussell P. Johnson and Naaman K. Wood Section III: The FuturistChapter Thirteen: Genetically Modified Human Beings in Dark AngelSabine PlankaChapter Fourteen: Of Shape-Shifters and Shifting Alliances: The Politics of the Terminator FranchisePatrick Zwosta Chapter Fifteen: An Abyss of Aliens: Action, Allegory and Mythological Elements in Aliens and The AbyssCarl H. Sobocinski Chapter Sixteen: Refining Genre, Reassessing Gender: Assessing the Sacrificial Heroine in the Works of James CameronChristian JimenezChapter Seventeen: “Two Candles in the Dark”: James Cameron’s Modern Fairy TalesElsa Columbani

Barkman and Sanna’s ambitious collection combines incisive coverage and remarkable accessibility with scholarly rigor. Complementing a growing number of resources on a veteran pop-culture influencer, the study amounts to a most compact and refreshing treatment of James Cameron's cinematic contributions.