Deny All Knowledge (Paperback)

David Lavery

ISBN 10: 0815604076 / ISBN 13: 9780815604075

Published by Syracuse University Press, New York, 1996

About this Item

Paperback. The "X Files" is as complex and controversial a phenomenon as the television series "Twin Peaks" was in the early 1990s. Mysterious and macabre episodes, led by fictional FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, captivate devotees week after week. Contributors to this volume examine the same intricate storylines that challenge viewers. Theoretically sophisticated, however, this book provides a forum for the creative process and a discussion of the state of popular culture as a whole. Part police drama, part horror story, and part science fiction, the show has dared to suggest with great seriousness the incredible charge that the United States government is involved in a vast conspiracy with former Nazi and Japanese scientists to assist alien beings in peforming experiments - including genetic hybridisation - on American citizens. Why does a hit series happen when it does? Is there a connection between the coming and going of "Twin Peaks" and the Bush presidency? It the "X Files" a Clinton-era phenomenon, a product of historical, cultural and psychological factors operative in the mid 1990s?Armed with an arsenal of critical methodology, contributors deal with these and many more topics, among them: folklore and myth; the development of cult TV; the show as a manifestation of a major sea of change in the nature of mass communication; cultural dialogue about law and order, freedom and safety, truth and lies; various feminist interpretations; and finally, drawing on sources as diverse as Foucault, Sartre, and Lacan, the essays examine the show from adaptations of body invasion and vampirism and modern horror films to psychoanalysis and semiotic structuralism. The "X Files" is as controversial a phenomenon as the television series "Twin Peaks" was in the early 1990s. Contributors to this volume examine the same storylines that challenge viewers to provide a forum for the creative process and a discussion of the state of popular culture as a whole. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780815604075

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Deny All Knowledge (Paperback)
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815604076
• ISBN 13: 9780815604075
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

<i>The X-Files </i>was one of the most subversive and longest-running science fiction series in US television history. Yet very little serious work has been done to examine the hit series. <i>Deny All Knowledge</i> examines topics such as: - Why is the series such a hit worldwide? - Why is <i>The X-Files</i> so popular online, generating dozens of websites and chat groups daily? - How does <i>The X-Files</i>' <i>Conspiracy Theory</i> compares to shows from the 1950s? - Can <i>The X-Files</i> be considered a modern-day myth? - What does <i>The X-Files</i> tell us about gender roles today?

About the Author

<b>David Lavery</b> is the author of more than one hundred published essays, chapters, and reviews. He is also coeditor of <i>Screwball Television: Critical Perspectives on Gilmore Girls </i>and<i> Reading Joss Whedon. </i><b>Angela Hague</b> is professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. <b>Marla Cartwright</b> is the director for the Center of Teaching and Learning at Purdue University Global.