Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey

Presents a collection of essays that examine in detail various possible readings of the film, "A Space Odyssey", its historical context, and its status as a quintessential science-fiction genre piece.

Robert Kolker, one of the best writers on Kubrick, has assembled nine impressive new essays from talented contributors on the director's most spectacular and enigmatic film. The collection is valuable not only for its post-millenial commentary on 2001, but also for its fresh insights into Kubrick's work as a whole.

Auteur

Robert Kolker is Emeritus Professor of Film Studies and Digital Media at the University of Maryland.

Texte du rabat

Almost all students have seen 2001, but virtually none understand its inheritance, its complexities, and certainly not its ironies. The essays in this collection, commissioned from a wide variety of scholars, examine in detail various possible readings of the film and its historical context.
They also examine the film as a genre piece--as the summa of science fiction that simultaneously looks back on the science fiction conventions of the past (Kubrick began thinking of making a science fiction film during the genre's heyday in the fifties), rethinks the convention in light of the time
of the film's creation, and in turn changes the look and meaning of the genre that it revived--which now remains as prominent as it was almost four decades ago. Constructed out of its director's particular intellectual curiosity, his visual style, and his particular notions of the place of human
agency in the world and, in this case, the universe, 2001 is, like all of his films, more than it appears, and it keeps revealing more the more it is seen. Though their backgrounds and disciplines differ, the authors of this essay collection are united by a talent for vigorous yet incisive writing
that cleaves closely to the text--to the film itself, with its contextual and intrinsic complexities--granting readers privileged access to Kubrick's formidable, intricate classic work of science fiction.

Résumé
Though Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey boasts a large and ever-expanding fan-base, there are few among even the most avid enthusiasts that fully understands the film's inheritance, complexities, and ironies. The essays in this collection, commissioned from a wide variety of scholars, examine in detail various possible readings of the film, its historical context, and its status as a quintessential science-fiction genre piece.