In view of the fact that David Lodge’s campus novels are renowned for their ability to make light of traditional gender stereotypes as well as for their purportedly liberal, pro-feminist, intertexual, dialogical and metatextual dimensions, this article seeks to explore more precisely the strategic and unavowedly political functions humour and the comic fulfil in Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work. What will be demonstrated is that Lodge’s light-hearted, tolerant and at times even progressive liberalism is little more than an effect produced by the textual surface structure. In the case of Nice Work, this discrepancy between the surface and the deep structure leads to the paradox that while voyeuristic structures and male bonding are overtly ridiculed, on a deep structural level they are effectively reaffirmed. Though Lodge’s novels are at the level of their surface structure sustained by a logic which uses the “comic mode” as a more or less subtle form to critique traditional gender stereotypes, literary conventions, the British university system and British industry, ultimately his ‘Rummidge trilogy’ reinforces an aesthetically, morally and politically conservative subtext.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Boy-love (or BL) manga (comic book) is a subgenre of Japanese girl’s manga. It features the homoerotic relationships between beautiful young boys and is popular among young straight women. This thesis explores the transnational influence of BL manga on young women and examines how Chinese female readers perceive and interpret this cultural artifact. An online survey has been conducted to answer key questions including: Who consumes BL productions in Chinese-speaking communities, how is BL fandom formed and what are the patterns of such fandom. Outcomes indicate women enjoy the queer fantasy deriving from reading BL manga and such fantasy should not be stigmatized or pathologized.

Följande kunskapsöversikt ämnar att undersöka effekten serietidningsliknande läsmaterial har på läsförståelsen hos andraspråksinlärare av Engelska. För att undersöka detta formulerades följande forskningsfråga: I vilken mån kan serietidningsliknande material påverka läsförståelsen hon andraspråksinlärare av Engelska? En prototypisk definition av serietidningar (Mayer, 2007) användes för att tillåta denna kunskapsöversikt att använda både studier som använde serietidningar och studier som använde seriestrippar som läsmaterial. I denna kunskapsöversikt kommer därför termen serietidningsliknande läsmaterial (Comic reading materials) användas som en paraplyterm för de två mediumen. För att granska om serietidningsliknande material kan påverka läsförståelsen för andraspråksinlärare i engelska har nio vetenskapliga artiklar som behandlar ämnet valts ut. Studierna I denna kunskapsöversikt har delats upp beroende på om de använder seriestrippar eller serietidningar/grafiska noveller då dessa två material bör åkalla effekten av de kognitiva teorier som presenteras i studien. Studierna gav inte ett tyligt svar på huruvida läsmaterialen påverkade läsförståelsen bland deras deltagare. Studierna hade även olika definitioner av nyckelord så som läsförståelse, skilda metoder för att mäta läsförståelse samt variation i hur de utförde texter tester. De olika resultaten från studierna har lett till följande slutsatser. Serieliknande läsmaterial har en potential som läromedel då de kan främja läsförståelse trots att det i fallet av de valda studierna inte alltid gör det. Det behövs vidare forskning i ämnet, då definitioner av nyckelbegrepp samt tester varierar i hög grad och detta gör det svårt att dra en tydlig slutsats.

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Art Spiegelman is one of the most important figures in the history of American comics. His work Maus (1980 and 1991) is arguably the landmark text in the field of comic book studies. Given the relatively recent reissue of his first collection Breakdowns (2008) and the publication of his interview/essay collection/scrapbook Metamaus (2011), it is likely that his work will continue to be the subject of critical interest. This thesis concerns the collections Breakdowns (1977 and 2008), Maus (1980 and 1991) and In the Shadow of No Towers (2004). It represents the first book-length extended study of Spiegelman s three major works. The central argument put forth in this thesis is that the Spiegelman oeuvre articulates and manifests a madness which its author perceives to underlie supposedly rational society. In support of this thesis I will employ critical models from the following fields: Holocaust studies, trauma theory, the anti-psychiatry movement, theories concerning the representation of madness, formalist analyses of comics, and Genette s narratological taxonomy.

Reflecting the masculine ethos of the larger comic book industry, superhero comics continue to be male-dominated spaces. Within comic studies, superhero scholars problematically normalize this androcentrism by reiterating the genre’s masculinist rhetoric, repeatedly positioning superheroes as stoic figures of whiteness, nationhood, heteronormativity and able-bodied masculinity. Although some intervention has been made to challenge these interpretations, scholars fail to acknowledge how transgender and/or transsexual readers evaluate comic heroes. This thesis provides one such intervention into the field, specifically focusing on the last son of Krypton, Superman. Drawing together the work of trans, queer, feminist, psychoanalytic, and monster theorists, my research attempts to “trans” Superman; thus, (re)reading the Man of Steel in a way that distinctly reflects the experiences of those who are denied access to the figure via their/our own gender “transgressions”. By interpolating transsexuality into the Superman narrative, I rewrite the figure’s place within the genre’s cis-sexist, masculinist history and while doing so, (re)position him as a more suitable hero for the trans community. / Thesis (Master, Gender Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-05 10:35:05.511

This study explores controlling images as essential to the representation of black women’s lives within the media, especially the comic book character, Storm from the X-Men series. The researcher uses content analysis to examine the graphic images, text and dialogue of the comic books chosen for this study. Furthermore, the researcher juxtaposes Storm to the main controlling images that Patricia Hill Collins discusses in her seminal work, Black Feminist Thought, but also to expand this discussion to include the stereotype of the Magical Negro.

In recent years, through the process of narrative and literary criticism, scholars have begun suggesting that satire is present in specific texts of the Old Testament. Thus the primary function of this thesis is to analyse the validity of these arguments alongside suggesting different places where satire may be found. To achieve this goal, the thesis begins by analysing and defining satire as a concept. A clear definition provides the thesis with the method needed to identify satire in texts which predate any defined understanding of the concept. The thesis also uses satirical works from throughout history as templates for understanding similar types of satire within the biblical works. Once this methodology has been established, different genres of the Old Testament form the different chapters of the thesis. It identifies four different places where satire is deployed. Thus it examines satire in narratives, the book of Jonah, prophetic texts and wisdom literature. Each chapter combines new ideas with the analysis of previous scholastic arguments concerning the presence of satire. Within each genre a different type of satire with a range of complexity is deployed. The idol critiques in prophetic texts show simplistic satire. Narrative satire shows both situational and character-based satire. The book of Jonah is an example of hypocritical satire. Finally, satire in the wisdom literature contains a range of different satirical styles. The thesis concludes that satire is present within the texts of the Old Testament. This has implication to the field of satire. It affirms the existence of pre-Hellenistic satire. Alongside this, it shows that satire is a subconscious human technique, deployable even when the proponent has no defined understanding of the concept. In the field of Old Testament studies it provides an alternative reading of many familiar texts. A satirical reading provides clear insight into authorial intent as well as offering different interpretations of the texts which are examined.

New Ways To Express Old Hatred is a sociological account of the consistencies and changes comic racist discourse has experienced over the past forty years in British popular culture, accounting for both content and communicative form in relation to the ethics and aesthetics of humour. The main focal point of the study concerns a case study representative of the communicative changes installed by the digitalisation of media in the cultural public sphere. Sickipedia.org which demonstrates a contemporary, participatory comic community that is simultaneously representative of popular culture. Sickipedia.org circulates explicit comic racist material on a large scale across several formats including its main website, several smart phone applications and a range of social media including Facebook and Twitter. This contemporary emergence of comic racism is discussed in relation to the historical context of wider comic racism in British popular culture, comparatively evaluating the form and content of material from the 'clubland' humour of the 1970s, the anti-racist tradition of 1980s Alternative comedy, the thematically fragmented popular comedy of the 1990s through to prejudicial liquidity evident in more recent comedy. The central argument being asserted is that comic racist discourse has been consistently reproduced for the last forty years. However its communicative form, aesthetic presentation and in some cases its content has undertaken a process of transformation in order for it to be circulated in contemporary popular cultural products unchallenged by both social critics and institutional authorities. Critical humour studies stresses that ridicule-based humorous discourse must be treated critically, especially if that ridicule is directed at groups who are socially marginalised. Comic racism represents the discursive stability of traditional racist discourses that have circulated in society since the Enlightenment, reproducing the ideological perspectives of white supremacy, social exclusion of 'Others' and the perceived, amalgamated biological and cultural inferiority of non-white 'races'. Drawing from content analysis and critical discourse analysis of Sickipedia.org, this study, on a textual level, with reference to theory and history, critically discusses the persistent reproduction of comic racism in the cultural public sphere of the UK, deconstructing the hateful messages embedded in racist jokes and providing an original contribution to critical humour studies.

It is difficult to say that anything will be proven in this thesis of mine. I think of it more as an account of some things that happened in my artwork over the course of graduate school and my earlier development as an artist. Some influences are listed, but certainly not all of them. Likewise, the work that is mentioned in this paper represents a sampling rather than an in-depth survey. I don't have any tables or charts.