Representations of Islam in United States Comics, 1880-1922

Representations of Islam in United States Comics, 1880-1922
Author: Maryanne A. Rhett
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2019-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350073253

Representations of Islam in United States Comics, 1880-1922 examines the depiction of Islam, Muslims, and the Islamic world in U.S. popular culture, particularly comics and related artifacts, between 1880 and 1922. Through cartoons, comics, editorial cartoons, serialized advertisements and other materials the book unfolds a narrative about how the Islamic world and its people were understood by the American government and its people. This “knowledge,” garnered from popular culture of the day, produced a lens through which domestic and international relationships were created and maintained. Representing a wide swath of U.S. popular culture and discourse, the reflections these artifacts offer are united in their depiction of the “Oriental” in an era that is largely assumed to have been marked by American un-interest in the region, peoples and religion. An exciting contribution to a growing field, this book resituates the U.S. within the Islamic world, using the everyday medium of comics to provide a fresh perspective on the subject.

Black Morocco

Black Morocco
Author: Chouki El Hamel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 534
Release: 2014-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1139620045

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.

Holy Anime!

Holy Anime!
Author: Patrick Drazen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2017-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0761869085

Christianity has been in Japan for five centuries, but embraced by less than one percent of the population. It’s a complicated relationship, given the sudden appearance in Japan of Renaissance Catholicism which was utterly unlike the historic faiths of Shinto and Buddhism; Japan had to invent a word for “religion” since Japan did not share the west’s reliance on faith in a personal God. Japan’s views of this “outsider” religion resemble America’s view of the “outsider” Islamic faith. Understanding this through the book Orientalism by Edward Said, Patrick Drazen samples depictions of Christianity in the popular Japanese media of comics and cartoons. The book begins with the work of postwar comics master Tezuka Osamu, with results that range from the comic to the revisionist to the blasphemous and obscene.

Orientalism

Orientalism
Author: Edward W. Said
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804153868

A groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East that is—three decades after its first publication—one of the most important books written about our divided world. "Intellectual history on a high order ... and very exciting." —The New York Times In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding.

Never Wholly Other

Never Wholly Other
Author: Jerusha Tanner Lamptey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2016
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0190458011

Drawing upon the work of Muslim women interpreters of the Qur'an, feminist theology, and semantic analysis, Never Wholly Other offers a novel re-interpretation of the Qur'anic discourse on religious "otherness." Lamptey challenges notions of clear and static religious boundaries.

Superhero Thought Experiments

Superhero Thought Experiments
Author: Chris Gavaler
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2019-09-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1609386558

Examining the deep philosophical topics addressed in superhero comics, authors Gavaler and Goldberg read plot lines for the complex thought experiments they contain and analyze their implications as if the comic authors were philosophers. Reading superhero comic books through a philosophical lens reveals how they experiment with complex issues of morality, metaphysics, meaning, and medium. Given comics’ ubiquity and influence directly on (especially young) readers—and indirectly on consumers of superhero movies and video games—understanding these deeper meanings is in many ways essential to understanding contemporary popular culture. The result is an entertaining and enlightening look at superhero dilemmas.

War, Politics and Superheroes

War, Politics and Superheroes
Author: Marc Di Paolo
Publisher: McFarland Publishing
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780786447183

Superhero adventure comics have a long history of commenting upon American public opinion and government policy, and the surge in the popularity of comics since the events of September 11, 2001, ensures their continued relevance. This critical text examines the seventy-year history of comic book superheroes on film and in comic books and their reflections of the politics of their time. Superheroes addressed include Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Superman, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, and topics covered include American wars, conflicts, and public policy. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Chinese Religiosities

Chinese Religiosities
Author: Mayfair Mei-hui Yang
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2008-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520098641

"Extraordinarily timely and useful. As China emerges as an economic and political world power that seems to have done away with religion, in fact it is witnessing a religious revival. The thoughtful essays in this book show both the historical conflicts between state authorities and religious movements and the contemporary encounters that are shaping China's future. I am aware of no other book that covers so much ground and can be used so well as an introduction to this important field." —Peter van der Veer, University of Utrecht

Representations

Representations
Author: LuMing Mao
Publisher:
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2008-11-28
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Asian American rhetorics, produced through cultural contact between Asian traditions and US English, also comprise a dynamic influence on the cultural conditions and practices within which they move. Though always interesting to linguists and "contact language" scholars, in an increasingly globalized era, these subjects are of interest to scholars in a widening range of disciplines—especially those in rhetoric and writing studies. Mao, Young, and their contributors propose that Asian American discourse should be seen as a spacious form, one that deliberately and selectively incorporates Asian “foreign-ness” into the English of Asian Americans. These authors offer the concept of a dynamic “togetherness-in-difference” as a way to theorize the contact and mutual influence. Chapters here explore a rich diversity of histories, theories, literary texts, and rhetorical practices. Collectively, they move the scholarly discussion toward a more nuanced, better balanced, critically informed representation of the forms of Asian American rhetorics and the cultural work that they do.