Abstract:
While steampunk continues to defy definition, this article seeks to identify a coherent understanding of steampunk as an aesthetic. By comparing and contrasting well-known cultural icons of George Lucas’s Star Wars with their steampunk counterparts, insightful features of the steampunk aesthetic are suggested. This article engages in a close reading of individual artworks by digital artists who took part in a challenge issued on the forums of CGSociety (Computer Graphics Society) to apply a steampunk style to the Star Wars universe. The article focuses on three aspects of the steampunk aesthetic as revealed by this evidentiary approach: technofantasy, a nostalgic interpretation of imagined history, and a willingness to break nineteenth century gender roles and allow women to act as steampunk heroes.
Here's the TOC for the issue as well - from what I've seen, the whole issue is solid gold!
| Contents | ||
Introduction: Industrial Evolution Rachel A. Bowser and Brian Croxall | ||
Clacking Control Societies: Steampunk, History, and the Difference Engine of Escape Patrick Jagoda | ||
Technology and Morality: The Stuff of Steampunk Stefania Forlini | ||
Betrayed by Time: Steampunk & the Neo-Victorian in Alan Moore’s Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Jason B. Jones | ||
Steam Wars Mike Perschon | ||
Time Machines: Steampunk in Contemporary Art Caroline Cason Barratt | ||
Democratising the Past to Improve the Future: An Interview with Steampunk Godfather Paul Di Filippo Lisa Yaszek | ||
‘The Steam Arm’: Proto-Steampunk Themes in a Victorian Popular Song Kirstie Blair | ||
Notes | ||
“God Save the Queen, for Someone Must!”: Sebastian O and the Steampunk Aesthetic Joseph Good | ||
| Reviews | ||
The Rocky Terrain of British Novel Adaptations: Review of Dianne F. Sadoff, Victorian Vogue: British Novels on Screen Thomas Witholt | ||
Re-Imagined Memory: Review of Kate Mitchell, History and Cultural Memory in Neo-Victorian Fiction: Victorian Afterimages Marie-Luise Kohlke | ||
On (Neo-Victorian) Re-Visions and Foldings: Review of Rachel Carroll (ed.), Adaptation in Contemporary Culture: Textual Infidelities Rosario Arias | ||
Steampunk Show Time: Review of Robert Rankin’s The Japanese Devil Fish Girl and Other Unnatural Attractions: A Novel Marie-Luise Kohlke And as an added bonus, here's a link to Greg Peltz's neo-Vic/steampunk Star Wars images: |
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your presentation at SteamCon II. Fascinating and very insightful!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maureen! Which one were you in? It's all a bit of a blur for me - the wine flowed freely the first night at the artists' reception, and it may have affected my memory. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe original "Steam Wars" was a concept of Mr. Larry Blamire (it had nothing to do with "Star Wars", though). The first illustrations and a short story "In the Days of the Steam Wars" were published in Galaxy Magazine in 1980, followed in mid-2000s by "Steam Wars" website. A detailed history of the project is offline now, but can still be found through the Wayback Archive - here.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have archivists like Piechur on board, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think I've seen too much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about the issue, Mike. We're glad to finally have the issue out the door and look forward to continuing a scholarly conversation on the subject in the future.
ReplyDeleteI was at the NeoVictorian Retrofuture panel, where the slides wouldn't work. But you were still captivating and I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of you in your snazzy duds!
ReplyDeleteI'll try and post one when I report on the Con!
ReplyDeleteApparently some enterprising individual has cribbed the Steam Wars idea for T-Shirts: check out the link here
ReplyDeletehttp://lolmart.com/product/lolmart-steam-wars/?utm_source=ads&utm_medium=ads&utm_campaign=500_11-4-11_STEAM_ICHC
a nostalgic interpretation of imagined history, and a willingness to break nineteenth century gender roles and allow women to act as steampunk heroes.swtor credits
ReplyDelete