Fantasy Film Post 9/11

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 1-21

3. Settings, Spectacle, and the Other: Picturing Disgust in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 23-45

4. Bewitching, Abject, Uncanny: Magical Spectacle in the Harry Potter Films

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 47-66

5. Pirate Politics and the Spectacle of the Other: Pirates of the Caribbean

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 67-86

6. Resurrection, Anthropomorphism, and Cold War Echoes in Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 87-97

7. The Aesthetics of Trauma: Temporality and Multidirectional Memory in Pan’s Labyrinth

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 99-113

8. Reframing the Cold War in the Twenty-First Century: Action, Nostalgia, and Nuclear Holocaust in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 115-130

9. The Ecstasy of Chaos: Mediations of 9/11, Terrorism, and Traumatic Memory in The Dark Knight

   • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

   Pages 131-142

10. Wounding, Morality, and Torture: Reflections of the War on Terror in Iron Man and Iron Man 2

    • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

    Pages 143-159

11. Shock and Awe: Terror, Technology, and the Sublime Nature of Cameron’s Avatar

    • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

    Pages 161-178

12. Conclusion

    • Frances Pheasant-Kelly

    Pages 179-182

13. Back Matter

    Pages 183-211

    PDF

Examining a range of fantasy films released in the past decade, Pheasant-Kelly looks at why these films are meaningful to current audiences. The imagery and themes reflecting 9/11, millennial anxieties, and environmental disasters have furthered fantasy's rise to dominance as they allow viewers to work through traumatic memories of these issues.

• film
• Harry Potter
• politics

"This book is a very thoroughly researched, readable study of fantasy films created after the 9/11 attacks . . . Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above." - CHOICE

"Pheasant-Kelly's exceedingly thorough, well-crafted book opens up new ways of understanding the impact of fantasy movies.This timely, original, and significant contribution to the literature of film is a must-read." - Jack G. Shaheen, author of Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on Arabs After 9/11

"In this path-breaking book the first in-depth study of the post-9/11 fantasy film Frances Pheasant-Kelly shows how the genre which continues to dominate the box office offers not simply an escape from painful realities but a complex and often dark mediation of contemporary anxieties. Through detailed and nuanced analysis of a wide range of films, Pheasant-Kelly traces how the themes, narratives and spectacular imagery of these texts capture the fearful post-9/11 zeitgeist in ways that resonate with the popular audience. Fantasy Film Post 9/11 offers compelling insights into how, in an era of political disengagement, war and terror have nevertheless become part of the fabric of Western popular culture." - Phil Hammond, Professor of Media and Communications and Head of the Centre for Media and Culture Research, London South Bank University, UK

"Fantasy Film Post 9/11 should be essential reading for all those interested in contemporary popular cinema. By mapping the narratives and themes of adventure and superhero franchises, Frances Pheasant-Kelly demonstrates how these apparently most escapist of films are nevertheless products of the ideological and political climate in which they were produced and consumed. This book will change the way we think about modern Hollywood cinema." - James Chapman, Professor of Film Studies, University of Leicester, UK

Frances Pheasant-Kelly is a senior lecturer in Film Studies in the School of Law, Social Science and Communication at the University of Wolverhampton.

Policies and ethics