A Phenomenology of the Alien

“Picking up this volume is the equivalent of being seated in a darkening movie theatre only to realize that you are sitting alongside both many of the luminaries of Western thought—Plato, Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Kristeva, Heidegger, Freud—and many of the masters of science fiction and horror cinema—Kubrick, Spielberg, Lucas, Burton, Nolan, et al. This book thrums with life—of both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial varieties (!)—weaving together theological, philosophical, socio-cultural and psychoanalytic lines of discussion with our quest for, and engagement with, the many forms of that which is “intractably alien.” It redefines what can be achieved philosophically, conceptually, when the psychological humanities thoroughly immerses itself in the cultural archives of science fiction and horror.” ~Derek Hook, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Duquesne University, Author of Six Moments in Lacan (2017) “This volume explores the question of aliens—real and imaginary—with compelling and original scholarship. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue with philosophy, literature, cinema, and religion, it interrogates the uncanny phenomenon of the stranger as human, animal, landscape, and divine. Ranging from mythology and magic to technology and politics, its questioning of the limits of the human is both topical and timely.” ~Richard Kearney, PhD, Charles Seelig Professor in Philosophy, Boston College