商品簡介
Sovereignty and superheroes marks a major new contribution to the emerging field of comics studies and the growing literature on superheroes. Using a range of critical theorists including Giorgio Agamben, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, and Carl Schmitt, the book examines superheroes as sovereigns, addressing amongst other things the complex treatment of law and violence, legitimacy and authority, states of emergency, the distinction between friend and enemy, and alternative structures of kinship. It examines all the main characters including Superman, Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and Iron Man along with a host of other heroes and heroines within the Marvel and DC universes, while also offering major studies of titles like Watchmen and Promethea.
The book will be of interest to academics and students interested in the intersection between superhero comics, culture and politics. In a century thus far dominated by the exceptionalism of the war on terror, superheroes offer us the perfect opportunity to think through the nature of sovereignty in such times of emergency. The book not only guides the reader through some of the major story arcs in superhero comics, but also serves as an excellent introduction to a range of writings on the nature of sovereignty and the many complex problems associated with its exercise. While superhero comics are wonderful allegories for many on these problems one of the main features of the book is to argue that superhero comics actually contribute something new to these debates in terms of their conception of the struggle between world building and world destroying conflicts.
作者簡介
Neal Curtis is Associate Professor in Media, Film and Television at the University of Auckland
