Star Wars begins with its famous title sequence, setting the story in the ancient past of a remote galaxy. Yet the phenomenal success of the film, the franchise and its “expanded universe” is based on its reflection of historical and cultural milieus here on modern-day Earth. This collection of essays examines the ways in which the saga touches on contemporary social and political issues.

Table of Contents

Preface: Galactic Graffiti
Hearing the Force: Manifestations and Transformations of Music from Far, Far Away (Tom Zlabinger)
The Space Community and the Princess: Reworking the American Space Program’s Public Image from “Miss NASA” to Princess Leia (Karin Hilck)
Feminist Icons Wanted: Damsels in Distress Need Not Apply (Mara Wood)
Jedi Knights, Dark Lords and Space Cowboys: George Lucas’s Re-Imagined and Redefined Masculine Identities (Erin C. Callahan)
Jedi Knights and Epic Performance: Is the Force a Form of Western-African Epic Mimicry? (Gregory E. Rutledge)
Deconstructing the Desert: The Bedouin Ideal and the True Children of Tatooine (Paul Charbel)
Periodizing a Civil War: Reaffirming an American Empire of Dreams (Peter W. Lee)
An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Age: Star Wars, Public Radio and Middlebrow Cold War Culture (Jessica K. Brandt)
Part of Our Cultural History: ­Fan-Creator Relationships, Restoration and Appropriation (Michael Fuchs and Michael Phillips)
About the Contributors
Index