This thesis aims at tracing the influence of British writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946) on the birth and development of Anglo-American superhero comics. First, it considers the way in which Wells’s early scientific romances – The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) – stemmed from the late-Victorian scientific episteme and romantic tradition to explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of superhumanity. Then, it sets out to analyze the percolation of Wellsian motifs through early-twentieth century American popular culture. I take into account Upton Sinclair’s The Overman (1907), Philip Wylie’s Gladiator (1930), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s “The Reign of the Super-Man” (1933) as transitional works that on the one hand reformulated Wells’s ideas and tropes for an American audience, and on the other hand paved the way for the creation of Superman (1938) and Batman (1939). The aim is to demonstrate that Wells’s direct and indirect influence on the inception of superhero comic books contributed to produce a twofold ambivalence about technological modernity and utopianism. Finally, this work scrutinizes the way in which Alan Moore’s 1980s graphic novels drew both on these structural ambiguities and their Wellsian predecessors to negotiate the tension between utopianism and anti-utopianism. I argue that Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) and Watchmen (1986-87) explore the antinomies of utopia and dystopia as they deconstruct the ideological assumptions of the superhero genre. As postmodern revisions of the archetype, these graphic novels problematize superheroes’s modernity vis-à-vis the end of metanarratives. A combination of literary studies, cultural studies and studies on comics/graphic novels provide the methodological framework for this work. In particular, I rely on cultural studies’ multi-disciplinary approach and materialist mode of inquiry to incorporate analytical tools from literary theory, utopian studies, historiography, cultural criticism, and semiotics.
Questa tesi si propone di rintracciare l’influenza dello scrittore britannico H. G. Wells sulla nascita e sviluppo dei comics di supereroi all’interno del contesto angloamericano. Per prima cosa, il lavoro esamina come i primi scientific romance di Wells – The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), e When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) – prendano le mosse dall’episteme scientifica e dalla tradizione del romance tardovittoriano per esplorare la dimensione utopica-distopica del superomismo. Quindi, la tesi analizza la penetrazione degli elementi wellsiani all’interno della cultura popolare americana di primo Novecento. Prendo in esame The Overman (1907) di Upton Sinclair, Gladiator (1930) di Philip Wylie, e “The Reign of the Super-Man” (1933) di Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster come testi di transizione che riformulano idee e motivi dello scrittore britannico per un pubblico americano, aprendo nel contempo la strada per la creazione di Superman (1938) e Batman (1939). L’obiettivo è quello di dimostrare come l’influenza diretta e indiretta di Wells sulla nascita dei fumetti di supereroi abbia contributo a determinare una duplice ambivalenza nei confronti della modernità tecnologica e dell’utopismo. Infine, la tesi analizza le modalità in cui i graphic novel di Alan Moore, composti negli anni ottanta del secolo scorso, abbiano attinto da queste ambiguità strutturali e dagli antecedenti wellsiani per negoziare la tensione tra utopismo e anti-utopismo. Sostengo che Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) e Watchmen (1986-87) esplorino le antinomie di utopia e distopia nell’atto di decostruire gli statuti ideologici del genere supereroistico. Come revisioni postmoderne dell’archetipo popolare, questi graphic novel mettono quindi in scena il conflitto tra la modernità intrinseca del supereroe e la fine delle metanarrazioni. Il quadro metodologico per questa indagine è offerto dagli studi letterari, dai Cultural Studies e dagli studi sul fumetto. In particolare, la multidisciplinarietà e l’approccio materialista degli Studi culturali permettono di incorporare strumenti metodologici da discipline come la teoria letteraria, gli studi sull’utopia, la storiografia, la critica culturalista e la semiotica.
'THE END WILL BE THE OVER-MAN': UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE AND GRAPHIC NOVEL / D. Croci ; tutor: N. Vallorani ; coordinatore: G. Garzone. DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE DELLA MEDIAZIONE LINGUISTICA E DI STUDI INTERCULTURALI, 2017 Oct 27. 29. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2016. [10.13130/d-croci_phd2017-10-27].
'THE END WILL BE THE OVER-MAN': UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ROMANCE AND GRAPHIC NOVEL
D. Croci
2017
Abstract
This thesis aims at tracing the influence of British writer H.G. Wells (1866-1946) on the birth and development of Anglo-American superhero comics. First, it considers the way in which Wells’s early scientific romances – The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and When the Sleeper Wakes (1899) – stemmed from the late-Victorian scientific episteme and romantic tradition to explore the utopian and dystopian possibilities of superhumanity. Then, it sets out to analyze the percolation of Wellsian motifs through early-twentieth century American popular culture. I take into account Upton Sinclair’s The Overman (1907), Philip Wylie’s Gladiator (1930), and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s “The Reign of the Super-Man” (1933) as transitional works that on the one hand reformulated Wells’s ideas and tropes for an American audience, and on the other hand paved the way for the creation of Superman (1938) and Batman (1939). The aim is to demonstrate that Wells’s direct and indirect influence on the inception of superhero comic books contributed to produce a twofold ambivalence about technological modernity and utopianism. Finally, this work scrutinizes the way in which Alan Moore’s 1980s graphic novels drew both on these structural ambiguities and their Wellsian predecessors to negotiate the tension between utopianism and anti-utopianism. I argue that Miracleman (1982-89), V for Vendetta (1982-89) and Watchmen (1986-87) explore the antinomies of utopia and dystopia as they deconstruct the ideological assumptions of the superhero genre. As postmodern revisions of the archetype, these graphic novels problematize superheroes’s modernity vis-à-vis the end of metanarratives. A combination of literary studies, cultural studies and studies on comics/graphic novels provide the methodological framework for this work. In particular, I rely on cultural studies’ multi-disciplinary approach and materialist mode of inquiry to incorporate analytical tools from literary theory, utopian studies, historiography, cultural criticism, and semiotics.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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