Overview
- Connects superhero comics revision with key debates in the theory and practice of revision: composition theory and rhetoric, narrative theory, and textual studies
- Addresses the persistence of reboots, retcons, and re-envisionings central to the superhero genre and superhero comics industry
- Offers analyses of a range of superhero comics ranging from well-known DC Comics and Marvel Comics figures to revisions and reinventions of similar figures from independent publishers
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels (PSCGN)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book argues that superhero revision offers new perspectives on the theory and practice of revision in broader contexts, in particular composition studies. Key developments in the history of superhero and composition revision reveal that both are deeply embedded in questions of narrative temporality. The book looks at three unorthodox revision strategies: sideshadowing, in which traditional tropes of superhero narratives are told with “new” characters that clearly evoke traditional ones; excavation, the reintegration and reinterpretation of elements and influences from earlier texts that have been de-emphasized or written out of continuity; and homodoxy, the narrative coexistence of inconsistent elements culled from different versions of a character’s textual history. The ensuing cross-disciplinary exploration helps correct a distorted stereotype of revision as a neutral mechanical process, revealing it instead as a potent force operating across a spectrum that ranges from restrictive adherence to orthodoxies, to radical resistance against the primacy of tradition.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
David Hyman is Associate Professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York, USA. His scholarship and teaching focus on comics, Spaghetti Westerns, and composition.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Revision and the Superhero Genre
Authors: David Hyman
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64759-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-64758-6Published: 20 September 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87864-5Published: 11 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-64759-3Published: 06 September 2017
Series ISSN: 2634-6370
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6389
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 83
Topics: Media and Communication, Literary Theory, Popular Culture , American Culture, North American Literature