For my final
project, I would like to continue focusing of the relationship between Marcuse’s
One Dimensional Man and superheroes. Essentially, I would like to focus
on how superheroes (specifically Batman and Superman) are held up as heroes within
our literary tradition but, in reality, serve as agents of a corrupt, failing
system. This is where Marcuse comes in. I will discuss the aspects of the
society which Marcuse criticizes and how some of our better known comic book
icons bolster them. After that, I will focus on specific villains and
anti-heroes from our comic book tradition (The Joker from The Dark Knight and the Watchmen,
respectively) and discuss how they are true agents of justice, using Marcuse’s
philosophy as background. I have done similar work to this before in class but
will look to expand my focus from simply certain characters as disruptive figures
that question society’s morals (though that will still be a significant aspect
of the project). In this project, I will look to include Marcuse’s ideas of
governing bodies controlling the technology of a society for their own ends and
the “happy consciousness.”
As I have
thought more and more about this project, I have decided that a powerpoint
would be the most effective way to execute it. I would not arrange it as a
simple presentation but would have slides introducing extended comic panels or
video clips, followed but several written slides discussing their significance.
This way, I could segment the project, separating Marcuse’s ideas into their own
separate sections and give the visual aids a prominent place while minimizing
technical difficulties. I want the project to be somewhat interactive and feel
that this idea is a good way to accomplish that.
Proposed bibliography:
-
Watchmen by Alan Moore
-
The Dark Knight
-
The Dark Knight
Rises
-
One
Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse
-
Various Superman and Avengers Comics as yet not decided upon
1 comment:
I like the theme or the overall focus, although since I like superheroes that isn't really a surprise. It also builds on your work through the semester, so I like that too. As an initial protest, on the other hand, I think the argument that super villains can serve as agents of change, social protest, etc. is a little vague - ideally even at this early point I would have liked to see you zero in on something more precise here. In other words, this initial argument is more a description of a possible range of arguments, in which you need to locate something more precise.
As far as texts go - I'd strongly recommend that you familiarize yourself with frank miller's The Dark Knight Returns, if you haven't. I can think of many other texts relevant to your argument, some of common interest, some more eccentric, but that is the really important one.
As far as the PowerPoint goes - as long as you use it to improve the presentation/organization of the visual evidence, that's fine. It would get to be problematic, though, if the text became deemphasized. I don't like PowerPoint in general, but if you use it carefully I can see it working here.
To repeat the main point -you want to be sure that the argument grows into something precise, narrow and, if possible, ambitious.
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