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Howard Bruce Franklin

ハワード・ブルース・フランクリン

H. Bruce Franklin

Aliases: H. Bruce Franklin / Bruce Franklin

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1934-02-28 （New York City）
Died
2024-05-19 （El Cerrito, California） age 90
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Residence History
Brooklyn → New York City → Stanford → Newark → El Cerrito

Career

Occupations
cultural historian, scholar
Active Years
1961-2018
Affiliations
Stanford University, Rutgers University–Newark, Melville Society
Memberships
Bay Area Revolutionary Union, Venceremos
Influenced
Noam Chomsky

Education

Amherst College
English
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1951-1955
Year of Graduation: 1955
Country: United States
summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Stanford University
English
Degree: Ph.D.
Period: 1955-1961
Year of Graduation: 1961
Country: United States

Awards

Eaton Award
1981
Work: Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction
Organization: Eaton SF Conference
Result: 受賞
SFRA Pilgrim Award
1983
Organization: SFRA
Result: 受賞
SFRA Pioneer Award
1991
Organization: SFRA
Result: 受賞
Pearson-Bode Prize
2008
Organization: American Studies Association
Result: 生涯功労賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the Nineteenth Century

1966 Science Fiction Criticism

Identifies early American SF writers like Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville.

Origins of SFAmerican Culture

War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination

1988 Cultural History

Examines American fascination with superweapons in literature.

SuperweaponsWar Fantasies

M.I.A., or Mythmaking in America

1992 Vietnam War Studies

Debunks the MIA myth post-Vietnam War.

Vietnam WarMyth-making

The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America

2007 Environmental History

Argues for the importance of menhaden in marine ecology.

Marine EcologyConservation

Bibliography

  • Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War (2018)
  • The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America (2007)
  • Vietnam & Other American Fantasies (2001)
  • Prison Writing in 20th-Century America (1998)
  • The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs, and Poems (1996)
  • M.I.A., or Mythmaking in America (1992)
  • War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination (1988)
  • Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist (1989)
  • Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction (1980)
  • Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the 19th Century (1966)
  • The Wake of the Gods: Melville's Mythology (1963)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Scholarly AnalysisHistorical ContextualizationInterdisciplinary
Recurring Motifs
War and MythSF and CulturePrison LiteratureEnvironment

Health

  • corticobasal degeneration
    晩年
    Cause of death.

Legacy

Received top awards in American studies, SF, prison literature, marine ecology. Key in establishing SF as academic field and debunking Vietnam MIA myths.

Academic Societies

  • SFRA
  • American Studies Association
  • International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Archives

  • Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

In Popular Culture

  • Guest curator for Star Trek exhibit at Smithsonian.

Quotes

  • Fundamental to the historical experience of American culture are alien invaders who came armed with a superior technology...
    Source: Comment on Independence Day (1996)
  • The typical American prison is designed and run to maximize degradation, brutalization, and punishment...
    Source: 2015 article (2015)
  • This is a culture which gets much of its vision of reality from images projected on movie screens, television screens and computer screens.
    Source: 2007 (2007)

Trivia

  • Only tenured professor fired from Stanford.
  • Active in Vietnam War opposition.
  • Resigned Air Force Reserve commission in protest.
  • Married to Jane Franklin until her death in 2023; three children.