Aiming for the Stars, Getting the Earth: Outer Space, Borders, and the Astronaut as an Agent for Cosmopolitan Aspirations in James Gray’s Ad Astra

• Ismael Ibáñez Rosales ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Zaragoza
• Localización: Moving beyond the pandemic: English and American studies in Spain / coord. por Francisco Gallardo del Puerto, María del Carmen Camus Camus, Jesús Ángel González López, 2022, ISBN 978-84-19024-15-2, págs. 176-181
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro (pdf)
• Resumen

  • This article presents Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) as the culmination of an emergent group of outer space films that have shown a growing concern for a future of space exploration that reveals terrestrial anxieties about space exploration and exploitation. The film looks back on mythic representations of the American west to transform outer space into a landscape where the Earth’s global threats are exposed. Consequently, the article focuses on how the film recycles the figure of the astronaut from its former role as space cowboy to its new image as vehicle for cosmopolitan aspirations. Through the theoretical framework of cosmopolitanism and border studies, the article presents Ad Astra’s interplanetary voyage to the last frontier as a metaphor for a journey to the heart of darkness, an opportunity to look back at ourselves.