Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg

Contributions by Jen Baker, Jessica Balanzategui, Noel Brown, Ingrid E. Castro, Andrew M. Gordon, James Kendrick, Peter Krämer, Gabrielle Kristjanson, Fran Pheasant-Kelly, Leonie Rutherford Edited by Adrian Schober, Debbie Olson

Not available to order

Publication date:

13 April 2016

Length of book:

326 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498518857

To say that children matter in Steven Spielberg's films is an understatement. Think of the possessed Stevie in Something Evil (TV), Baby Langston in The Sugarland Express, the alien-abducted Barry in Close Encounters, Elliott and his unearthly alter-ego in E.T, the war-damaged Jim in Empire of the Sun, the little girl in the red coat in Schindler’s List, the mecha child in A.I., the kidnapped boy in Minority Report, and the eponymous boy hero of The Adventures of Tintin. (There are many other instances across his oeuvre). Contradicting his reputation as a purveyor of ‘popcorn’ entertainment, Spielberg’s vision of children/childhood is complex. Discerning critics have begun to note its darker underpinnings, increasingly fraught with tensions, conflicts and anxieties. But, while childhood is Spielberg’s principal source of inspiration, the topic has never been the focus of a dedicated collection of essays. The essays in Children in the Films of Steven Spielberg therefore seek to address childhood in the full spectrum of Spielberg’s cinema. Fittingly, the scholars represented here draw on a range of theoretical frameworks and disciplines—cinema studies, literary studies, audience reception, critical race theory, psychoanalysis, sociology, and more. This is an important book for not only scholars but teachers and students of Spielberg's work, and for any serious fan of the director and his career.

Introduction: Adrian Schober
Chapter 1: Spielberg and the Kidult, Noel Brown
Chapter 2: Unconditional Love, Hysterical Motherhood and the Lost/Possessed Child: Steven Spielberg’s Something Evil, Adrian Schober
Chapter 3: Ambiguous Loss: The Depiction of Child Abduction in Spielberg’s Early Films, James Kendrick
Chapter 4: “I’ll be right here!” Dealing with Emotional Trauma in and through E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Peter Krämer
Chapter 5: Children, Innocence and Agency in the Films of Steven Spielberg, Ingrid E. Castro
Chapter 6: Childhood, Race, and the Politics of Dirt in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, Debbie Olson
Chapter 7: Betwixt-and-Between: Reclaiming Childhood in Hook, Jen Baker
Chapter 8: Hooked on Happy Thoughts: New Sincerity and Spielberg’s Troubled Nostalgia for Mythic Childhood, Jessica Balanzategui and Gabrielle Kristjanson
Chapter 9: Bipolar Boys: Spielberg's Manic-Depressive Children, Andrew M. Gordon
Chapter 10: Trauma, Loss, Anxiety: Spielberg’s Missing Children in Minority Report, Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds, Fran Pheasant-Kelly
Chapter 11: Body Consciousness and Adolescence in The Adventures ofTintin: The Secret of The Unicorn, Leonie Rutherford

A stimulating and original collection. A range of distinguished scholars have been assembled to reflect on the representation of childhood in Spielberg's work, and collectively they challenge the frequent critical accusations of sentimentality, illuminating instead the sensibility of a director whose work has always shown an unusual sensitivity to the traumas and dangers of childhood and how children (and adults) cope with this sense of anxiety and loss. An important contribution to Spielberg studies.