Sidekicks in literature / editors: Laura Nicosia & James F. Nicosia.

Format:

Book

Series:

Critical insights

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sidekicks in literature.

Friendship in literature.

Heroes in literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 386 pages : color illustrations, photographs, 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ipswich, Massachusetts : Salem Press, a division of EBSCO Information Services, Inc. ; Amenia, NY : Grey House Publishing, [2026].

Summary:

Sidekicks have long played crucial roles in literature and popular culture--from Sancho Panza's grounded pragmatism in Don Quixote to Samwise Gamgee's quiet heroism in The Lord of the Rings. While often cast in the background, sidekicks shape plotlines, support protagonists, complicate heroism, and challenge normative ideas of centrality, identity, and power. This volume investigates the role of sidekicks across literary and media traditions, uncovering how these characters enrich narrative structure, illuminate cultural values, and offer provocative alternatives to dominant figures. --publisher description

Contents:

About this volume: the ever-attractive, oft-overlooked, continually evolving sidekick / James F. Nicosia and Laura Nicosia

On sidekicks: from Holmes to Robin-companions, consciences, and co-heroes / James F. Nicosia and Laura Nicosia

The sidekick as mentor, surrogate father, and model of masculinity / Tim Bryant

Nancy Drew's forgotten sidekick: Helen Corning and the importance of being consistent / Faith Monesteri

Queequeg, Ishmael, and the democratic idea in Moby Dick / Elissa Greenwald

Knight of the plains: the Don Quixote-Sancho Panza dynamic in Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove / Adrian Arana-Armesto

Critical readings : Ron and Hermione: the sidekicks who became more / James F. Nicosia

Sisters in the spotlight: redefining the Disney sidekick / Deanna W. Wanio

The nerdy boy sidekick in middle grade American literature / Emma K. McNamara

"You can't crush a soul here... that's what the earth is for": sidekicks and the dialogical power of jazz in Pixar's Soul / Eman Halimeh

Echo and embodiment of trauma: George R. R. Martin's Hodor as a tragic sidekick figure in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones / Anna-Maria Grill

The shifting terrain of heroes and sidekicks in the film Powwow Highway James Plath

The calculated risk: the rise and fall of Chester Hime's Harlem detective team of Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson / Hue Woodson

Bonding beyond blood: analyzing brotherhood among men in Toni Marrison's Song of Solomon and Suzan-Lori Park's Topdog/Underdog Tammie Jenkins

An AI "sidekick" in Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun Hiashi Ozawa

After all we've been through: sidekicks, companionship, and care in narrative video games / Gabrielle Kirilloff

On being player two: the complexity of the video game sidekick / Thomas Caffrey.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-373) and index.

ISBN:

9798891794481

OCLC:

1536999145

Publisher Number:

90104447633