Description

From the dawn of the atomic age, art and popular culture have played an essential role interpreting nuclear issues to the public and investigating the implications of nuclear weapons to the future of human civilization. Political and social forces often seemed paralyzed in thinking beyond the advent of nuclear weapons and articulating a creative response to the dilemma posed by this apocalyptic technology. Art and popular culture are uniquely suited to grapple with the implications of the bomb and the disruptions in the continuity of traditional narratives about the human future endemic to the atomic age.
Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future explores the diversity of visions evoked in American and Japanese society by the mushroom cloud hanging over the future of humanity during the last half of the twentieth century. It presents historical scholarship on art and popular culture alongside the work of artists responding to the bomb, as well as artists discussing their own work.
From the effect of nuclear testing on sci-fi movies during the mid-fifties in both the U.S. and Japan, to the socially engaged visual discussion about power embodied in Japanese manga, Filling the Hole in the Nuclear Future takes readers into unexpected territory

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface: Hiroshima Story Chapter 2 Introduction: Filling the Hole in the Future Chapter 3 1. Fetch Lights and Grocery Lists: Metaphors and Nuclear Weapons Chapter 4 2. from Critical Assembly, Poems Chapter 5 3. Robots, A-Bombs, and War: Cultural Meanings of Science and Technology in Japan Around World War Two Chapter 6 4. The Day the Sun Was Lost, Manga Chapter 7 5. The Summer You Can't Go Back To, Manga Chapter 8 6. "The Buck Stops Here": Hiroshima Revisionism in the Truman Years Chapter 9 7. Godzilla and the Bravo Shot: Who Created and Killed the Monster? Chapter 10 8. Thank you Mr. Avedon Chapter 11 9. Target Earth: The Atomic Bomb and the Whole Earth Chapter 12 10. Nuclear Culture 13 11. Nuclear Fear 1987–2007: Has Anything Changed? Has Everything Changed?

Product details

Published 12 Apr 2010
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 290
ISBN 9780739135587
Imprint Lexington Books
Series AsiaWorld
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Contributor

Mick Broderick

Contributor

John Canaday

Contributor

Tom Engelhardt

Contributor

Judy Hiramoto

Contributor

Kenji Ito

Contributor

Minoru Maeda

Contributor

Naoko Maeda

Contributor

Yuki Tanaka

Contributor

Spencer Weart

ONLINE RESOURCES

Bloomsbury Collections

This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.

Related Titles

Get 30% off in the May sale - for one week only

Environment: Staging