Episode 37 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015) (with Becca Harrison)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015).
The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!
Beginning the New Year in a galaxy far, far away, Chris and Alex turn for the first time to the seminal Star Wars franchise for their latest episode, this time revisiting the first in the latest sequel trilogy Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015). Joining them for this journey through this epic space fantasy is Dr Becca Harrison, Lecturer in the Theatre, Film & Television Studies department at the University of Glasgow. Becca has written extensively on Star Wars for both the BFI and The Conversation, and is also the author of two upcoming books on the Star Wars franchise. Listen as they make their way through topics including the shape of academic scholarship on the film series and the challenges of critically engaging with the Star Wars universe; the film’s place within the industrial logic of the franchise feature; how recalls, callbacks and looping within Star Wars: The Force Awakens can be understood as examples of narrative ‘recursion’; inclusive representation and the film’s complex racial and gender politics; the authorship of George Lucas; and mythologies of female-oriented power that exist both within and beyond the film.
Suggested Readings
Harrison, Rebecca. 2019. “Gender, race and representation in the Star Wars franchise: an introduction”. Media Education Journal 65, no. 2: 16-19.
Harrison, Rebecca. 2020. The Empire Strikes Back. London: BFI Publishing.
Decker, Kevin S. 2005. Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine. Illinois: Open Court.
Eco, Umberto. 1981. The Narrative Structure in Fleming. London: Routledge.
Fuller, Matthew, ed. 2008. software studies \ a lexicon. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Jackson, Rosemary. 1981. Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion. London: Routledge.