American comics, literary theory, and religion : the superhero afterlife / A. David Lewis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lewis, A. David, 1977- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comic books, strips, etc--History and criticism.

Comic books, strips, etc.

Graphic novels--History and criticism.

Graphic novels.

Future life in literature.

Self (Philosophy) in literature.

Religion in literature.

Physical Description:

xiii, 192 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Just as often as superheroes journey into the afterlife, they also return from it. Their surprising immortality has created its own set of storytelling rules and expectations; it also has come to influence their secular readership in new interreligious investigations of narrative character and personal selfhood. Unlocking a new and overdue model for reading comic books, this unique volume explores religious interpretations of popular comic book superheroes such as the Green Latern and the Fantastic Four. A. David Lewis argues that the superhero subgenre offers a hermeneutic for those interested in integrating multiplicity into religious practices and considerations of the afterlife. Book jacket.

Contents:

The six elements of the superhero afterlife subgenre

The comic book medium's glimpse of eternity

Complexities of character in Fantastic Four: Hereafter

Planetary, Promethea, and the multiplicity of selfhood.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1137465603

9781137465603

OCLC:

884299315