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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 302
EAN: 9780802825735
ISBN: 0802825737
Label: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 428
Publication Date: June 01, 2002
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Studio: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
From the Superman of comic books to Hollywood's big-screen action stars, Americans have long enjoyed a love affair with the superhero. In this engaging volume John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett explore the historical and spiritual roots of the superhero myth and its deleterious effect on Americas democratic vision. Arguing that the superhero is the antidemocratic counterpart of the classical monomyth described by Joseph Campbell, the authors show that the American version of the monomyth derives from tales of redemption. In settings where institutions and elected leaders always fail, the American monomyth offers heroes who combine elements of the selfless servant with the lone, zealous crusader who destroys evil. Taking the law into their own hands, these unelected figures assume total power to rid the community of its enemies, thus comprising a distinctively American form of pop fascism. Drawing widely from books, films, TV programs, video games, and places of superhero worship on the World Wide Web, the authors trace the development of the American superhero during the twentieth century and expose the mythic patterns behind the most successful elements of pop culture. Lawrence and Jewett challenge readers to reconsider the relationship of this myth to traditional religious and social values, and they show how, ultimately, these antidemocratic narratives gain the spiritual loyalties of their audiences, in the process inviting them to join in crusades against evil. Finally, the authors pose this provocative question: Can we take a holiday from democracy in our lives of fantasy and entertainment while preserving our commitment to democratic institutions and waysof life?
Average Rating: 
Rating: -
"The Myth of the American Superhero" by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett is an ambitious if somehwat turgid history of American pop culture's celebration of the superhero. The authors assess the societal implications of exposure to repetitive presentations of anti-democratic pop heroes and heroines, demonstrating how American life has come to imitate art on numerous occassions. Packed with engaging content and providing numerous insights, this interesting book highlights the often detrimental ... Read More
Rating:  -
The authors do a very good job of establishing a basic pattern for mythic storytelling in modern America. The pattern they establish of a heroic redeemer who enters an edenic community beset by evil and conquers by his superhuman powers before departing is a helpful matrix for thinking about many American cultural myths. The problem is that the authors ignore a great many of these myths in order to explore the more dubious aspects of their theory such as freudian sexual theory in Disney cartoons. (There ... Read More
Rating:  -
An extremely revealing guide to an essential "great myth" of America, one that drives much of our politics and even religion, no less than film and novel plots. Not necessarily a healthy myth, but rather one more and more irrelevant to a culture that no longer lives on a "frontier" but in an enormously interactive megaculture whose borders are no more substantial than electronic. Hundreds of examples make the arguments unavoidable.
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