Far Out: The Space Age in American Culture

摘要

From the 1950s to the 1970s, space held many meanings: it was a symbol-laden arena in which people and nations staged Cold War competitions, a 'star' in the media firmament, an ultimate challenge for scientists and engineers, and an inspiration for artists and designers. even as the exuberant high of the Space age slipped away, it nonetheless left an enduring array of creative and rhetorical resources in American culture. like any star celebrity, the legacy of meanings for national identities and global futures were complex and multiple. Space exploration in this era-entangled in Cold War rivalries, magnified by the explosion of new image-based media, intertwined with discussions over the role of technology and planetary stewardship, and expressed through innovative artistic products and designs- anchored diverse images and representations. In its intersections with the Cold War, the Media age, the technetronic age, and Mid-century Modernism, the Space age provided a canvas for many visions, a setting for multiple narratives about who 'we' were and could be. This essay seeks to suggest some of the diverse symbols and narratives of the Space age as they circulated in american culture.