Films of James Cameron

Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York. Stephen McVeigh is a lecturer in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University. He has written extensively on the representation of war in film and literature.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Introduction: Persistence of Visions—Approaching the Films of James CameronSTEPHEN MCVEIGH AND MATTHEW WILHELM KAPELL      Surveying James Cameron’s Reluctant Political Commentaries: 1984–2009STEPHEN MCVEIGH AND MATTHEW WILHELM KAPELL      Fighting the History Wars on the Big Screen: From The Terminator to AvatarACE G. PILKINGTON      “She’s a goddamn liar”: Perspectives on the Truth in Aliens and TitanicANDREW B. R. ELLIOTT      Art, Image and Spectacle in High Concept CinemaBRUCE ISAACS      “You have to look with better eyes than that”: A Filmmaker’s Ambivalence to TechnologyELIZABETH ROSEN      “So, what’s your story?” Morphing Myths and Feminizing Archetypes from The Terminator to AvatarDEAN CONRAD      Between Aliens and Avatar: Mapping the Shifting Terrain of the Struggle for Women’s RightsELISA NARMINIO AND MATTHEW WILHELM KAPELL      Terminators, Aliens, and Avatars: The Emergence of Archetypal Homosexual Themes in a Filmmaker’s ImaginationROGER KAUFMAN      “I see you”: Colonial Narratives and the Act of Seeing in AvatarJOHN JAMES AND TOM UE      Gonzalo Guerrero and the Maya Resistance to the Spanish Conquistadors: A Sixteenth Century “Avatar” of AvatarC. SCOTT LITTLETON      Conclusion: Seeing the Films of James Cameron MythicallyMATTHEW WILHELM KAPELL AND STEPHEN MCVEIGH      About the Contributors      Index

“a noteworthy and important addition to a lively ongoing conversation”—The Journal of Popular Culture; “the book clearly explores how Cameron’s films are a construction of their times, responding to a wide range of political cultural, and social influences”—Science Fiction Studies.