2017 The Association for the Studies of the Present Book Prize
Finalist Mention, 2017 Lora Romero First Book Award Presented by the American Studies Association
Winner of the 2012 CLAGS Fellowship Award for Best First Book Project in LGBT Studies
How fantasy meets reality as popular culture evolves and ignites postwar gender, sexual, and race revolutions.
In 1964, noted literary critic Leslie Fiedler described American youth as “new mutants,” social rebels severing their attachments to American culture to remake themselves in their own image. 1960s comic book creators, anticipating Fiedler, began to morph American superheroes from icons of nationalism and white masculinity into actual mutant outcasts, defined by their genetic difference from ordinary humanity. These powerful misfits and “freaks” soon came to embody the social and political aspirations of America’s most marginalized groups, including women, racial and sexual minorities, and the working classes.
In The New Mutants, Ramzi Fawaz draws upon queer theory to tell the story of these monstrous fantasy figures and how they grapple with radical politics from Civil Rights and The New Left to Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements. Through a series of comic book case studies—including The Justice League of America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The New Mutants—alongside late 20th century fan writing, cultural criticism, and political documents, Fawaz reveals how the American superhero modeled new forms of social belonging that counterculture youth would embrace in the 1960s and after. The New Mutants provides the first full-length study to consider the relationship between comic book fantasy and radical politics in the modern United States.
"Ramzi Fawaz's marvelous new book,The New Mutants, digs deep into the long history of superheroes and unearths a radical political tradition that has mostly goneunnoticed until now. . . .an eye-opening read, and Fawaz offers a way of reading superhero comics that is rooted both in scholarship and in the rich history of superhero narratives. Its clear that Fawaz is both a scholar and a fan, a dynamic that results in a book that should be appreciated by academics and true believers alike." - Popmatters
"Fawaz takes a hard look at the politics behind superhero comics in this...satisfying debut. [A]n enjoyable and perceptive study." - Publishers Weekly
"Fawaz draws on close readings and sharp analysis." - Pacific Standard
"The New Mutantis not only one of the smartest critiques Ive ever read, its one of the most brilliant academic engagements with pop culture, period." - Patheos
"The New Mutantsprovides considerable substance to the argument that comic books are indicative and powerful literary publications which assist their readers in coping with their marginalization in a society which often pretends to include everyone or to portray the world as a happy, global family." - Journal of American Culture
"[A] well-documented study of the political and cultural evolution of American comic books, from the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics in 1938 to the present day. A strong piece of interdisciplinary research..well-argued, clearly written." - Library Journal
"Mov[es] fluently between an overarching look at postwar comics to more specific analysis of how mainstream comics offers a place for subversive world building." - American Literature
Формат: Скан PDf
Finalist Mention, 2017 Lora Romero First Book Award Presented by the American Studies Association
Winner of the 2012 CLAGS Fellowship Award for Best First Book Project in LGBT Studies
How fantasy meets reality as popular culture evolves and ignites postwar gender, sexual, and race revolutions.
In 1964, noted literary critic Leslie Fiedler described American youth as “new mutants,” social rebels severing their attachments to American culture to remake themselves in their own image. 1960s comic book creators, anticipating Fiedler, began to morph American superheroes from icons of nationalism and white masculinity into actual mutant outcasts, defined by their genetic difference from ordinary humanity. These powerful misfits and “freaks” soon came to embody the social and political aspirations of America’s most marginalized groups, including women, racial and sexual minorities, and the working classes.
In The New Mutants, Ramzi Fawaz draws upon queer theory to tell the story of these monstrous fantasy figures and how they grapple with radical politics from Civil Rights and The New Left to Women’s and Gay Liberation Movements. Through a series of comic book case studies—including The Justice League of America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and The New Mutants—alongside late 20th century fan writing, cultural criticism, and political documents, Fawaz reveals how the American superhero modeled new forms of social belonging that counterculture youth would embrace in the 1960s and after. The New Mutants provides the first full-length study to consider the relationship between comic book fantasy and radical politics in the modern United States.
"Ramzi Fawaz's marvelous new book,The New Mutants, digs deep into the long history of superheroes and unearths a radical political tradition that has mostly goneunnoticed until now. . . .an eye-opening read, and Fawaz offers a way of reading superhero comics that is rooted both in scholarship and in the rich history of superhero narratives. Its clear that Fawaz is both a scholar and a fan, a dynamic that results in a book that should be appreciated by academics and true believers alike." - Popmatters
"Fawaz takes a hard look at the politics behind superhero comics in this...satisfying debut. [A]n enjoyable and perceptive study." - Publishers Weekly
"Fawaz draws on close readings and sharp analysis." - Pacific Standard
"The New Mutantis not only one of the smartest critiques Ive ever read, its one of the most brilliant academic engagements with pop culture, period." - Patheos
"The New Mutantsprovides considerable substance to the argument that comic books are indicative and powerful literary publications which assist their readers in coping with their marginalization in a society which often pretends to include everyone or to portray the world as a happy, global family." - Journal of American Culture
"[A] well-documented study of the political and cultural evolution of American comic books, from the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics in 1938 to the present day. A strong piece of interdisciplinary research..well-argued, clearly written." - Library Journal
"Mov[es] fluently between an overarching look at postwar comics to more specific analysis of how mainstream comics offers a place for subversive world building." - American Literature
Формат: Скан PDf
https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/the-new-mutants-superheroes-and-the-radical-imagination-of-american-comics.html