Search using keywords/tags or full text search.
Dr Brian Baker
Lecturer in English Literature
Degree: BA English and American Literature (Warwick) MA American Studies (East Anglia) PhD (Liverpool) in Postwar American Dystopian Fiction
Current Teaching
Literature and Film, Science Fiction
Research Interests
Brian studied for his undergraduate degree in English and American Literature at the University of Warwick, took an MA in American Studies at the University of East Anglia, and completed his PhD at the University of Liverpool, in postwar American dystopian science fiction. He taught literature and film at NEWI in Wrexham and at the University of Chester before moving to Lancaster in September 2006. He researches and publishes in several fields, including contemporary British fiction, science fiction, London fictions, masculinities, and film studies. Recent and current work includes seminar and conference papers, and published articles and book chapters, on the fiction of J.G. Ballard and Michael Moorcock; gender in the science fiction of the 1950s; masculinity and the Gothic; contemporary London fictions; Ray Bradbury; and on film genres such as the biblical epic and serial killer horror films.
He has published, with John H. Cartwright, Literature and Science: Social Impact and Interaction (Santa Barbara and Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2005), which offers a broad overview of the relationship between literature and science from the early modern period to contemporary literature and culture; and Masculinity in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular Genres 1945-2000 (London and New York: Continuum, 2006), which encompasses the genres of science fiction, spy fictions, film noir and detective fictions, and the Western, to investigate constructions of masculinity in the post-war period. A monograph on the contemporary London writer Iain Sinclair was published as part of Manchester University Press's Contemporary British Novelists series in 2007. Brian has also edited a collection of essays on screen adaptations of literature, Textual Revisions, which was published by the Chester Academic Press in 2009.
He has several book projects ongoing. He is writing the Reader's Guide to Essential Critisism of Science Fiction for Palgrave Macmillan;continuing his work on New Wave science fiction, especially Michael Moorcock and J.G. Ballard, in a critical/creative project; working on issues of mobility and the chronotope in 20th century litereature and film; and on on manifestations of the 'remix' in contemporary culture.
Brian has supervised research students in the areas of visuality and the subject in the fin-de-siècle Gothic, and fantasy fictions, films and fan-fictions, and currently supervises in the fields of graphic novels and spatiality, and the post-war American short story. He would welcome applications for research projects on twentieth-century American fiction and film in general, but in particular sciencefiction, gender (especially masculinity) in film, city fictions (especially London fictions), and the relationship between cinema and literature.
Potential Doctoral Proposals
20th century American literature
Science fiction, particularly post-World War 2
Masculinities in fiction and film
The city in fiction and film, especially London fictions
Popular and genre fiction
Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database
Brian Baker has 4 selected publication records listed on this webpage. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title. For all ePrints records go to http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk
Baker, Brian (2007) Iain Sinclair. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719069041
Baker, Brian (2006) Masculinity in Fiction and Film: Representing Men in Popular Genres 1945-2000. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-8652-3
Baker, Brian and Cartwright, J. H. (2005) Literature and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-458-X
Baker, Brian (2005) Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451. In: Blackwell's Companion to Science Fiction. Blackwell. ISBN 1405112182
Other Interests and Hobbies
Digital music and the remix, painting, playing guitar, the visual arts, Arsenal FC
Associated Keywords: Contemporary literary studies, Contemporary literature, Detective fiction, Film adaptation, Film studies, Genre fiction, Literature, Literature and gender, Literature and science, London in fiction and film, Popular culture, Science and literature, Science fiction, The graphic novel, Theories of modernity, Twentieth-century culture, Twentieth-century literature, Twentieth-century popular culture, Utopia
View all research activities, ePrints, news and events associated with Brian Baker.
Contact Details
Tel: +44 (0)1524 592225
Room: County, B107
View Staff Profiles
Find staff personal pages in English and Creative Writing and other Faculty departments:
| Research | Staff | News & Events | Contact Us | Resources for Current Students |
County College, Lancaster University,
LA1 4YD, UK | Tel:+44 (0)1524 592129 Fax: +44 (0) 1524 594247 Email