My dissertation, entitled “Comic Book Realism: Sincerity, Ethics, and the Superhero in Contemporary American Literature,” has developed out of questions I began asking at Christ College, beginning with “Word and Image,” when Professor David Morgan introduced me to the study of comics in Fall 2007. The relationship between word and image is at the heart of my dissertation, in which I examine the emerging genre of what I am calling “comic book realism,” novels which draw on, reference, and obliquely participate in the superhero genre by crafting stories about comic book readers who themselves become or imagine themselves to be superheroes. In particular, I argue that comic book realism allows writers to confront questions of identity by using the metaphor of the superhero/alter ego dynamic. Furthermore, the superhero’s quest for justice helps to wrestle with questions of ethical obligation in an increasingly interconnected world. Beyond the present moment, comic book realism frequently grapples with an ethical response to historical atrocities, particularly the Holocaust. At its heart, this project examines the transhistorical significance of the superhero genre since 1938, the quasi-religious reverence we have for superheroes, and the value of the human imagination in
My dissertation, entitled “Comic Book Realism: Sincerity, Ethics, and the Superhero in Contemporary American Literature,” has developed out of questions I began asking at Christ College, beginning with “Word and Image,” when Professor David Morgan introduced me to the study of comics in Fall 2007. The relationship between word and image is at the heart of my dissertation, in which I examine the emerging genre of what I am calling “comic book realism,” novels which draw on, reference, and obliquely participate in the superhero genre by crafting stories about comic book readers who themselves become or imagine themselves to be superheroes. In particular, I argue that comic book realism allows writers to confront questions of identity by using the metaphor of the superhero/alter ego dynamic. Furthermore, the superhero’s quest for justice helps to wrestle with questions of ethical obligation in an increasingly interconnected world. Beyond the present moment, comic book realism frequently grapples with an ethical response to historical atrocities, particularly the Holocaust. At its heart, this project examines the transhistorical significance of the superhero genre since 1938, the quasi-religious reverence we have for superheroes, and the value of the human imagination in