Upon its initial release in 1977, many critics regarded Star Wars as a childish retort to the mature American cinema of the seventies. Though full of sound and fury, some felt that it signified nothing. Four decades later, the significations are multiple as interpretations of the film's strange imagery and metaphoric potential continue to pile up.
Interpreting Star Wars analyses and contextualises the dominant trends in Star Wars interpretation from the earliest reviews, through Lucasfilm's attempts to use its position as copyright holder to promote a single meaning, to the 21st century where the internet has rendered such authorial control impossible and new entries to the canon present new twists on old hopes.
Author(s): Miles Booy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 200
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgements and Housekeeping
Introduction: Possibilities of interpretation
1 Star Wars versus secularity
2 Star Wars and the Reagan revolution
3 The first interpreters
4 The trilogy and the myth reading
5 The progressives strike back:
6 New twists on old hopes:
Conclusion: The many lives of George Lucas
Notes
Introduction: Possibilities of interpretation
1 Star Wars versus secularity
2 Star Wars and the Reagan revolution
3 The first interpreters
4 The trilogy and the myth reading
5 The progressives strike back: Star Wars as liberal text
6 New twists on old hopes: Prequels and sequels
Conclusion: The many lives of George Lucas
Bibliography
Index
