Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics (Popular Culture and Everyday Life) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820488089 ISBN 13: 9780820488080

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

In 1977 a single film called Star Wars exploded on the consciousness of the world. Since then the franchise, created by George Lucas, has become a global entertainment corporation. The merchandise of the original trilogy was largely confined to toys and games, but those games have since become computerized, the toys more sophisticated, and Star Wars has moved into the multi-media environment of the twenty-first century in ways unimaginable in the long-ago world of 1977. Computer games and web sites, novels, animated television shows, as well as a new trilogy of films, have all placed Star Wars at the center of world popular culture.
Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise brings together contributors who critically analyze the Star Wars universe from many perspectives. Topics include war, foreign policy, gender roles, spirituality and religion, toy play and adult collecting, creative fandom, race, special effects, and mythology.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Star Wars is the most important franchise in the history of American popular culture, and Kapell and Lawrence’s Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics is the most important book about Star Wars. This collection of well-written and engaging es-says examines the Star Wars phenomenon from a variety of important and revealing perspectives. It is a ‘must have’ for any Star Wars fan, or for anyone interested in the dynamic interplay of popular culture and society." Gary Hoppenstand, Editor, The Journal of Popular Culture

"These essays place the dynamics of the twentieth century’s most wide- reaching science fiction phenomenon in a meaningful cultural and politi-cal context." Javier Martinez, Editor, Extrapolation

About the Author:

The Editors: Matthew Wilhelm Kapell edited, with William G. Doty, Jacking in to the Matrix Franchise (2004). An anthropologist and historian, he has published on topics as diverse as the genetics of human growth, utopian thought, and Christian romance fiction.
John Shelton Lawrence is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa. He wrote, with Robert Jewett, Captain America and the Crusade against Evil (2003) and the multiple award-winningThe Myth of the American Superhero (2002).

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0820488089
• ISBN 13: 9780820488080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308
• Editor: Kapell Matthew Wilhelm, Lawrence John Shelton