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Batman has become a fixture in the popular consciousness of America. Since his first publication in Detective Comics #27 in 1939, he has never ceased publication, appearing in multiple titles every month as well as successfully transitioning into other media such as film and television. A focused analysis of the character will reveal that Batman has achieved and maintained this cultural resonance for almost seventy years by virtue of attaining the status of a postmodern American mythology. In both theme and function, Batman has several direct connections to ancient mythology and has adapted that form into a distinctly American archetype. And as a popular cultural symbol, he has shown remarkable malleability to reflect the attitudes of his contemporary culture. An examination of Batman's enduring and changing characteristics will reveal insights into American values, culture and history during the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries.

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In this text I retell the story of a close friend of mine that went missing a few years ago. I also dive into world geographies and how they interconnect unexpectedly, for example through water.  In the Hindu scripture Shatapatha Brahmana, written between the 6th and 8th centuries BCE, one encounter scientific knowledge of geometry, observational astronomy, and many tales, where time is told in a cyclical, nonlinear way. The book recounts how the sweat dripping down the god Shiva’s head is the water of Ganges River, where the ashes of generations of deceased people travel along the currents like a miniature collection of the past. I depart from a lens-based practice to explore remains of traces of stories, contrasts between inherited cultures and gay love.  Through the migratory movement from India to Norway made by my father in the 80’s, the same period as the fathers of my Norwegian cousin’s migrated from, Algeria, Morocco, and Argentina. I came to know about the importance of the permanence as some of them stayed and influenced our cultural microcosmos of diaspora perspective. While some of them departed back again to their birth countries leaving mythical-like aura behind. From the get-go our shared upbringing in the Scandinavian landscape made us witness the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of our human existence and filling a gap between having two cultures. And a question to the difference between being of or having a minority background.  The artistic expression can be intricately intertwined with the nuanced language of gestures, transcending linguistic and cultural motifs. Through a local Indian newspaper shipped to my hometown in Norway ever since I was a child, arised a playful game of trying to understand and learn these symbols and cultural motifs.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.