Star Trek as Myth

Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.

Table of Contents



Acknowledgments     

Introduction: The Significance of the Star Trek Mythos

(Matthew Wilhelm Kapell)     



PART ONE: A PARTIAL CANON OF STAR TREK MYTH CRITICISM

1. Star Trek as Myth and Television as Mythmaker

(Wm. Blake Tyrell)     

2. A Structuralist Appreciation of Star Trek

(Peter J. Claus)     

3. Some Implications of the Mythology in Star Trek

(C. Scott Littleton)     

4. Star Trek: American Dream, Myth and Reality

(Ace G. Pilkington)     

5. Speakers for the Dead: Star Trek, the Holocaust, and the Representation of Atrocity

(Matthew Wilhelm Kapell)     

6. “Every Old Trick Is New Again”: Myth in Quotations and the Star Trek Franchise

(Djoymi Baker)     



PART TWO: BOLDLY GOING FORWARD: NEW FRONTIERS OF MYTHIC STAR TREK ANALYSIS

7. Star Trek as American Monomyth

(John Shelton Lawrence)     

8. The Sisko, the Christ: A Comparison of Messiah Figures in the Star Trek Universe and the New Testament

(Jeffery S. Lamp)     

9. Course in Federation Linguistics

(Richard R. Jones)     

10. Evocations and Evasions of Archetypal Lesbian Love in Star Trek: Voyager

(Roger Kaufman)     

11. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Surak: Star Trek: Enterprise, Anti-Catholicism and the Vulcan Reformation

(Jennifer E. Porter)     

12. A Vision of a Time and Place: Spiritual Humanism and the Utopian Impulse

(Bruce Isaacs)     

13. The Kirk Doctrine: The Care and Repair of Archetypal Heroic Leadership in J.J Abrams’ Star Trek

(Stephen McVeigh)     

14. Conclusion: The Hero with a Thousand Red Shirts

(Matthew Wilhelm Kapell)     



About the Contributors     

Index