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Comic Book Realism: Sincerity, Ethics, and the Superhero in Contemporary American Literature reads a trio of recent American novels in the context of superhero comics, the influence of which looms large over these texts but has for one reason or another been largely neglected by critics. Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude, and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao feature protagonists whose immersion in their comic book collections translates into their lives by allowing them to comprehend and interact with the world in the language of the superhero metaphor. I argue that these texts should be studied because of, and not despite, their affiliation with superhero comics, against what seems to be a latent critical bias which has led many to overlook or disregard the superheroic elements of these texts. Understanding how Chabon, Lethem, and Díaz engage with the superhero genre is essential to understanding their engagement with issues of identity, ethical responsibility, and masculinity. Daniel Bautista has read Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as a work not of magical realism but of something new, “comic book realism,” which blends a realist approach to literature with popular culture citations in order to represent with accuracy the myriad cultural influences coming to bear on his characters’ lives. I suggest that Bautista’s label should be extended to Chabon, Lethem, and a variety of other authors who are engaging with the genre as Díaz does; in so doing, I connect a variety of novels which have either seldom been studied before or have never been studied in connection with each other. I begin by examining comic book realism’s affinity with emerging theories about the literary movement following postmodernism, which some have dubbed “post-postmodernism.” I argue that comic book realism’s approach to questions of identity, as informed by the dynamic between superhero and alter ego, aligns with Adam Kelly’s sense of a post-postmodern New Sincerity, which rejects any ironic valence between identity and mass culture; consequently, the novels of comic book realism unironically engage with superhero comics as tools for identity formation. I then turn to Levinasian ethics in order to address the charge that superhero comics are solely escapist; instead, I argue that escapism in these novels necessitates an act of memory, an ethical awareness of the absence from which these characters are attempting to escape. These texts, then, are not unethical in their attempts to escape historical atrocities like the Holocaust. Rather, they constitute an ethical act of remembrance in foregrounding this absence. In my penultimate chapter, I take up the question of masculinity, so central to the gendered space of superhero comics, arguing that the novels of comic book realism reject the hypermasculine standard of the superhero in favor of what I call an ideal of “mild-mannered masculinity,” after the superhero’s alter ego. Compared to the virile and confident Superman identity, Clark Kent represents a model of masculinity that is weak and timid, a model valorized by Chabon, Lethem, and Díaz. In my final chapter, I take stock of the contributions of women writers to the genre of comic book realism, whose work is overlooked by the presupposition that superhero comics are a boy’s domain. Here I find that the women writers evince a need to create their own space in the superhero genre, while I suggest that recent trends in the genre suggest that the next generation of women writers may engage with the genre in a different, somewhat unpredictable way.

Recent advances in technology are reshaping and enhancing the role of the industrial designer. While industrial designers are already trained to be experts in process and possess a wide range of skills, there must be a higher level of fusion between design, science, and technology than ever before. This paradigm presents an opportunity in the emerging field of wearable technology; industrial design, engineering and computer science would be an optimal collaboration for the inevitable increase in mixes of disciplines to address all aspects of a product and its development. By investigating products from companies such as Nike and Adidas, and also by exploring themes of personal augmentation in science fiction, this thesis will explore the conceptualization of a soft, wearable garment system for runners that utilizes developing advancements in technology, apparel and graphical user interface. / Master of Science

In this thesis report traces I detail the process from the conception of the idea through the arduous development and finally the final product of Wayne Cheong’s narrative screenplay. Also included are the numerous revisions that have resulted from his involvement in this project. / text

This thesis consists of two major components. It begins with an analytical essay that discusses the three final plays I wrote during my time at the University of Texas at Austin (White Tie Ball, The Making of a Modern Folk Hero, and A.I.M.). The essay also places these plays within the context of my larger journey as a writer during my graduate coursework. Specifically, the essay addresses the different strategies I employed to effectively integrate my characters’ pursuit of their very personal objectives with the politics of the world in each play. Immediately, following this analytical essay are the three plays in question placed in the order in which I wrote them. / text

Nobody can live without oxygen. What happens when you have a chronic disorder that prevents the oxygen from reaching your lungs? This condition is called asthma and affects millions of people. Symptoms might be from a wheezing to a severe asthma attack with airways obstruction. It is difficult, above all for children, to accept a condition that might unexpectedly come anytime.   The Super-air inhaler is thought as a Super Hero, the worship the child has for the Hero will make the child feel strong and he will not feel ashamed of using it when having an attack. The inhaler has also been designed to make it easy for the child to take his medicine during the day and at night time too.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2007. / Title from screen (viewed on May 23, 2007) Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-110)

This study intends to evaluate the extent to which gender inequality permeates representation in the media. By drawing on the literature of feminist phenomenology I define subjectivity as the tendency of characters to interact with the world around them rather than merely have that world act upon them. I use the themes of sexual spectacle, motivation, and violence and protection to evaluate the gender differences among superbeing characters from the DC and Marvel franchises. Through the use of a qualitative content analysis this study has shown that the dichotomous gender hierarchy actively subordinates female superbeing characters through their diminished subjectivity. A character's ability to act upon the world through act-break motivations, direct capacity for violence, and the protection of others defines them as subjects. Conversely, a character's inability to do those actions as well as their instances of sexual spectacle and unmotivated sexual displays in costuming and gender performance relegates them to the role of object. The subjectivity score is used to more clearly show a definitive ranking of these characters. Female superbeing characters often hold negative scores. This means that their total deductions from categories that diminish their subjectivity, such as instances of sexual spectacle or revealing costumes, outweigh any points they earn from categories that award them more subjectivity, such as protection/rescuing others. The male characters hold double or triple the scores of their female counterparts, which perfectly highlights the gendered division of the attributes that inform subjectivity. By allowing superbeing characters to transcend gender dichotomy and engage with the full human spectrum of emotion and wellbeing, we could celebrate people as fully human and disrupt the gender normativity that maintains inequality. / Master of Science / Marvel and DC Comics are two of the most popular comic book companies in the US. They are responsible or the creation of well-known characters such as Superman and Iron Man. Within the last few decades the comics because popular film franchises. Both companies release several films every year from their respective cinematic universes. These are highly grossing movies and popular enough to have character costumes produced for purchase. Popular cultural phenomenon such as these film franchises provides an opportunity to study social topics such as gender inequality and heteronormativity. This study focuses on the on-screen depictions of these superbeing characters in order to establish a connection between gender and subjectivity in these super-human bodies. Subjectivity, defined by Iris Marion Young’s conceptualization of a feminist phenomenology uses the themes of motivated action, violence and protection, and sexual spectacle to determine if there is a gendered difference in the ways these characters are able to be super and how that impacts their overall subjectivity level. The data supports the theory that male superbeing character are allowed to be full subjects who are able to act upon the world while female superbeing characters are still relegated to the sphere of objectification.

Published from 1985 to 1986, DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths created the expectation that each crossover will result in numerous deaths and alter the structure or history of the DC Universe. Since many of these changes, such as the death of a popular or iconic character, cannot be sustained long term, the success and influence of Crisis on Infinite Earths led to the erosion of the very elements that made it shocking. Entire worlds can be destroyed, but superreaders eventually suspect that no change is ever permanent and, as more iconic characters are revived or rebooted, death is no longer meaningful.

This dissertation will argue that, rather than simply reflecting the religious worldviews of his creators and readers, the presentations of Superman that span more than 75 years in a variety of mass media, have produced a mythology, iconography, ethical code, and set of practices that reflects a dynamic relationship with the complex religious systems in the United States. Obviously, the presentation of Superman by his creators and the reception of Superman by his readers are heavily influenced by Christianity, Judaism, and American civil religion (he does, after all, represent “truth, justice, and the American way”) along with many other religious worldviews. It explores the dynamic and complex interactions between Superman and his fans and show that the figure of Superman is utilized by his fans to understand theological and ethical issues, while, at the same time, their understanding of Superman shapes those theological and ethical opinions and ideas. American religious traditions influence the popular images and representations of Superman, but Superman also influences the understanding religious traditions across a breadth of historical and cultural contexts. Superman’s state of multiple expressions of permanent liminality allows the character and his stories to be useful sites for people to perform the religious work of constructing, strengthening, and/or negotiating boundaries between categories, such as the human and the divine or the secular and the religious. It is through these boundaries that people define and interpret their religious worldviews.