Abstract
In the 1950s, three TV series were broadcast about the experimental rocket scientist, Bernard Quatermass, and a fourth shown in the 1970s. Quatermass highlights the gothic mood by exploring post-war social anxieties, and that the world could not be defended against an alien threat. Through these, and his other television stories, Kneale confronts local legend and apparently supernatural phenomena through a scientific lens, stressing that an alien presence could be brought back from space, or could infiltrating society as part of an invasion, or it could even sit at the heart of mankind, bringing into question the nature of humanity.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic |
Editors | Clive Bloom |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmilan |
Pages | 819-835 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Volume | 3 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-030-33136-8 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-3-030-33135-1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 25 Dec 2020 |
Keywords
- Aliens
- Belief system
- Claustrophobia
- The Demonic
- Dystopia
- Experimental Science
- Ghost Story
- Haunting
- Horror
- Origins of humanity
- Ritual
- Science Fiction
- Supernatural
- Superstition
- Terror
- Zeitgeist