How Comics Reflect Society
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| Author | : Björn Saemann |
| Publisher | : GRIN Verlag |
| Total Pages | : 55 |
| Release | : 2011-02-15 |
| Genre | : Foreign Language Study |
| ISBN | : 3640831128 |
Master's Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,5, University of Hildesheim (Institut für englische Sprache und Literatur ), language: English, abstract: American superhero-comics have been around for over 70 years now. In that period not only the genre and its medium matured but also the social, cultural and political environment changed. This paper hypothesizes that superhero comics change over time to stay relevant and that the observant reader can make conclusions about the time during which a comic was written by analyzing it. The first part of this paper gives a short summary of the history of superhero comics from the creation of Superman in 1939 to the Modern Age of Comics. It explains how the superhero comic originated in the late 1930s, blossomed in the 1940s, struggled in the 1950s and reinvented itself in the 1960s. Events like the introduction of the Comic Book Code and the death of Gwen Stacy will be presented and it will be explained why they had an immense impact on the comic-book culture. Also, the definition of the term superhero will be discussed. Afterwards, the essay focuses on the different kinds of comic-book revisionism and the different reasons for it. This and the chapters before help to understand how the comic book industry works and how innovations in comic books are introduced and why they happen. The main part of the essay continues to prove the hypothesis on the example of three superheroes that have all existed since the Golden Age of Comics: Wonder Woman, Captain America and Batman. Each of those superheroes will provide an example for a different kind of social change: With the help of Wonder Woman, the change of the women's role and the change of feminism will be examined. Captain America is a great example of a superhero created out of a social and political need and of the struggle that arises when this need is fulfilled. He also poses as an example for how comics comment on political changes. Finally, the Batman comics are used to illustrate the power Dr. Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent had over society and over comics itself. That chapter also discusses what the changes, made to Batman comics in reaction to the accusation of homosexuality, say about the reputation of homosexuals in the 1950s. The last part of this essay gives an example for the possibilities to use this topic in school, in English as a foreign language or history classes.
| Author | : Annessa Ann Babic |
| Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
| Total Pages | : 274 |
| Release | : 2013-12-11 |
| Genre | : Literary Criticism |
| ISBN | : 1611475570 |
This anthology hosts a collection of essays examining the role of comics as portals for historical and academic content, while keeping the approach on an international market versus the American one. Few resources currently exist showing the cross-disciplinary aspects of comics. Some of the chapters examine the use of Wonder Woman during World War II, the development and culture of French comics, and theories of Locke and Hobbs in regards to the state of nature and the bonds of community. More so, the continual use of comics for the retelling of classic tales and current events demonstrates that the genre has long passed the phase of for children’s eyes only. Additionally, this anthology also weaves graphic novels into the dialogue with comics.
| Author | : Paul S. Hirsch |
| Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
| Total Pages | : 346 |
| Release | : 2024-06-05 |
| Genre | : Comics & Graphic Novels |
| ISBN | : 0226829464 |
Winner of the Popular Culture Association's Ray and Pat Browne Award for Best Book in Popular or American Culture In the 1940s and ’50s, comic books were some of the most popular—and most unfiltered—entertainment in the United States. Publishers sold hundreds of millions of copies a year of violent, racist, and luridly sexual comics to Americans of all ages until a 1954 Senate investigation led to a censorship code that nearly destroyed the industry. But this was far from the first time the US government actively involved itself with comics—it was simply the most dramatic manifestation of a long, strange relationship between high-level policy makers and a medium that even artists and writers often dismissed as a creative sewer. In Pulp Empire, Paul S. Hirsch uncovers the gripping untold story of how the US government both attacked and appropriated comic books to help wage World War II and the Cold War, promote official—and clandestine—foreign policy and deflect global critiques of American racism. As Hirsch details, during World War II—and the concurrent golden age of comic books—government agencies worked directly with comic book publishers to stoke hatred for the Axis powers while simultaneously attempting to dispel racial tensions at home. Later, as the Cold War defense industry ballooned—and as comic book sales reached historic heights—the government again turned to the medium, this time trying to win hearts and minds in the decolonizing world through cartoon propaganda. Hirsch’s groundbreaking research weaves together a wealth of previously classified material, including secret wartime records, official legislative documents, and caches of personal papers. His book explores the uneasy contradiction of how comics were both vital expressions of American freedom and unsettling glimpses into the national id—scourged and repressed on the one hand and deployed as official propaganda on the other. Pulp Empire is a riveting illumination of underexplored chapters in the histories of comic books, foreign policy, and race.
| Author | : Jeffrey K. Johnson |
| Publisher | : McFarland |
| Total Pages | : 0 |
| Release | : 2012-04-03 |
| Genre | : Literary Criticism |
| ISBN | : 9780786465644 |
In the less than eight decades since Superman's debut in 1938, comic book superheroes have become an indispensable part of American society and the nation's dominant mythology. They represent America's hopes, dreams, fears, and needs. As a form of popular literature, superhero narratives have closely mirrored trends and events in the nation. This study views American history from 1938 to 2010 through the lens of superhero comics, revealing the spandex-clad guardians to be not only fictional characters but barometers of the place and time in which they reside. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
| Author | : Bradford W. Wright |
| Publisher | : JHU Press |
| Total Pages | : 364 |
| Release | : 2003-10-17 |
| Genre | : Art |
| ISBN | : 9780801874505 |
A history of comic books from the 1930s to 9/11.
| Author | : Danny Fingeroth |
| Publisher | : A&C Black |
| Total Pages | : 196 |
| Release | : 2004-01-01 |
| Genre | : Comics & Graphic Novels |
| ISBN | : 9780826415394 |
Why are so many of the superhero myths tied up with loss, often violent, of parents or parental figures? What is the significance of the dual identity? What makes some superhuman figures "good" and others "evil"? Why are so many of the prime superheroes white and male? How has the superhero evolved over the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries? And how might the myths be changing? Why is it that the key superhero archetypes - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, the X-Men - touch primal needs and experiences in everyone? Why has the superhero moved beyond the pages of comics into other media? All these topics, and more, are covered in this lively and original exploration of the reasons why the superhero - in comic books, films, and TV - is such a potent myth for our times and culture.>
| Author | : Matthew Pustz |
| Publisher | : A&C Black |
| Total Pages | : 297 |
| Release | : 2012-02-23 |
| Genre | : Comics & Graphic Novels |
| ISBN | : 1441172629 |
A highly original collection of essays, demonstrating how comic books can be used as primary sources in the teaching and understanding of American history.
| Author | : Chris York |
| Publisher | : McFarland |
| Total Pages | : 233 |
| Release | : 2014-01-10 |
| Genre | : Literary Criticism |
| ISBN | : 0786489472 |
Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture--from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities--manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.
| Author | : Jonah Goldberg |
| Publisher | : Crown Forum |
| Total Pages | : 482 |
| Release | : 2020-01-14 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 110190495X |
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An urgent argument that America and other democracies are in peril because they have lost the will to defend the values and institutions that sustain freedom and prosperity. Now updated with a new preface! “Epic and debate-shifting.”—David Brooks, New York Times Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle. As Americans we are doubly blessed, because the radical ideas that made the miracle possible were written not just into the Constitution but in our hearts, laying the groundwork for our uniquely prosperous society. Those ideas are: • Our rights come from God, not from the government. • The government belongs to us; we do not belong to it. • The individual is sovereign. We are all captains of our own souls, not bound by the circumstances of our birth. • The fruits of our labors belong to us. In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices. As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation, and privilege, the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right. For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals and habits of the heart that led us out of the bloody muck of the past—or back to the muck we will go.
| Author | : Jean-Paul Gabilliet |
| Publisher | : Univ. Press of Mississippi |
| Total Pages | : 571 |
| Release | : 2013-03-25 |
| Genre | : Literary Criticism |
| ISBN | : 1628469994 |
Originally published in France and long sought in English translation, Jean-Paul Gabilliet's Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books documents the rise and development of the American comic book industry from the 1930s to the present. The book intertwines aesthetic issues and critical biographies with the concerns of production, distribution, and audience reception, making it one of the few interdisciplinary studies of the art form. A thorough introduction by translators and comics scholars Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen brings the book up to date with explorations of the latest innovations, particularly the graphic novel. The book is organized into three sections: a concise history of the evolution of the comic book form in America; an overview of the distribution and consumption of American comic books, detailing specific controversies such as the creation of the Comics Code in the mid-1950s; and the problematic legitimization of the form that has occurred recently within the academy and in popular discourse. Viewing comic books from a variety of theoretical lenses, Gabilliet shows how seemingly disparate issues—creation, production, and reception—are in fact connected in ways that are not necessarily true of other art forms. Analyzing examples from a variety of genres, this book provides a thorough landmark overview of American comic books that sheds new light on this versatile art form.
